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Peter David - Darkness of the L

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A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
NEW YORK
DARKNESS
OF THE
LIGHT
PETER DAVID
®

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events
portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are
used fictitiously.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
Copyright © 2007 by Peter David
All rights reserved.
Edited by James Frenkel
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor ® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
0987654321
Cover art by Mark Zug

to kathleen, the light to my darkness

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to my agent, Matt Bialer, and editor, Jim Frenkel, without whom the
Earth would remain hidden.

DARKNESS
OF THE
LIGHT

THE BATTLE PLAIN OF MARSAY
i.
Mandraques do nothing in half mea sures.
That had always been the unofficial motto of the Five

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Clans. Aside from their mutual contempt, it might well have been the only
thing that united them. It was a motto that applied to all things, all
dealings, all clanwars. And it very much applied to the battlefield, which was
running green with Mandraque blood.
The field was flat and lifeless, with the bodies of hun-
dreds of Mandraques scattered in various places and as-
sorted pieces. Nothing was moving except the flies, and the air was thick with
the stench of bodies, decay, and waste.
There had been choruses of groaning, cries for help, moans of “My leg!” and
“Help me, damn you!” and “I’ll kill you all for this!” Eventually they had
tapered off. Only the corpses remained.
One Mandraque in par tic u lar had not gone down easily.
His sword was clenched tightly in his clawed hand. His ar-
mor was in tatters, and through the holes one could see the blue- green
scales that were the typical skin covering for the species. He had been
massively muscled. Like most Man-
draques, his scaled head was round, his eyes were little more than slits,
his parallel nostrils were cruel lines in the middle of his face. His mouth,
in death, was drawn back in a sneer, which actually mirrored the way it had
normally appeared in life.
Insects were gathering upon his forehead, working their way into his nostril
slits, as he stared lifelessly at the sky above. It was a gorgeous day if one
was willing to discount the smoke that hung in the air from the various fires
. . .
fires that had resulted from the flaming arrows filling the air

like so many shooting stars. Those arrows had been largely responsible for the
aroma of cooked meat hanging heavy in the still air.
A slender hand, fingernails thick with dirt, skin abraded on the back, reached
over and brushed the flies away from his forehead. The hand’s possessor slowly
hauled herself forward on her hands and knees. She had only just come around,
shaking off the darkness that had claimed her. She could not have been more
different from the dead Man-
draque supine upon the ground. Her skin was smooth and tanned, and copious
amounts of thick black hair hung in her face. Her eyes peered through the
strands, and re-
flected in them was a soul with the frailty of a crippled sparrow. The various
stenches assaulted her as her full senses began to come around, and she
coughed in violent spasms, her breasts heaving as she did so.
She was bloodied from having been thrown around dur-
ing the fighting. Her mind was a blur . . . images tumbling one over the other
. . . blood flying, teeth tearing and rip-
ping, terrifying and unrecognizable roars of defiance and death, death all
around her . . .
“Greatness?” she said softly. Her hand hesitated over him, because she was
never supposed to touch him without his permission. Nevertheless, this time
she took the risk and rested her fingers tentatively upon him. Her fingers
were tinted green with blood.
No response.
A bit more boldly, she shook the Mandraque as she whis-
pered his title into his earhole. “Greatness?” she repeated.
“ G r e a t n e s s... what do you wish me to do now?”
Still no answer.
Caution dissolved within her. She grabbed the dead Man-
draque with both hands and shook him violently. “Great-
ness!
W h a t d o y o u w i s h m e t o d o ! T e l l m e ! G r e a t n e s
s... !
”

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Her cries were so loud that she didn’t hear the footsteps behind her,
crunching across the ash and rubble- strewn land. She continued to shout at
the dead Mandraque, pound-
ing with a combination of mounting fury and terror upon
2
PETER DAVID

his chest, and would have continued to do so until she’d col-
lapsed in exhaustion had she not been alerted by a loud clearing of a throat.
She turned, jumping back, startled. She rubbed some stray soot from her eyes
and wiped dirt from her face, leav-
ing smears from the back of her hand. She squinted at the new arrival and had
no idea what to make of him.
He was neither as tall nor as wide as the Greatness had been. His visage was
fearsome and feral, but surprisingly it was mingled with a gentleness such as
she had never seen in all her life. She didn’t truly know how many years old
she actually was. She had once asked, and the Greatness had told her she was
between fifteen and twenty cycles around the sun. He couldn’t be more
specific beyond that.
The newcomer’s skin was similar to her own, but an even darker hue. He had a
mop of curly brown hair that hung in ringlets around his triangular face. He
looked at her, tilting his head from side to side in curiosity, and the curls
bounced around as he did so. Save for a large, thick band of leather that
wrapped around him from waist to shoulder, he was naked from the waist up,
displaying a flat stomach and taut chest. It was a warm day, so his relative
lack of apparel didn’t surprise her terribly. She herself was not wearing
much: scraps of cloth to accentuate the curves of her body, gauzy and filmy
and out of place in the blood- soaked envi-
rons.
What did surprise her was that, from the waist down, he was covered with thick
brown fur. His legs bent at an odd angle to the knees, and tapered down into
cloven feet.
“I don’t think he’s in much of a position to respond,” he said. His voice was
rough, but there was amusement in it.
He glanced around the scene with obvious interest. “He cer-
tainly gave an accounting of himself in his final moments.”
“Final . . . moments?” she said slowly.
“Well . . . yes. Look,” and he pointed at the devastation in the area
immediately around the Greatness.
She studied where he was indicating, truly seeing it for the first time. There
were other Mandraque bodies strewn
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
3

about, their weapons broken and scattered. Even the least damaged of them
were ripped up or gutted. Most of them were missing pieces of their bodies:
arms, legs, tails, and such. There were still trickles of blood from some of
the severed limbs. She saw that there was a Mandraque with his teeth sunk into
the Greatness’s leg.
She looked back up at the newcomer. “Final moments?”
she said again.
He stared at her, clearly disbelieving. “Yes. He’s...
dead. You do understand that, don’t you?” He took a step to-
ward her. “You’re a human, aren’t you? A human female.
I’ve never seen one of you living before. Does your kind have names? What’s
your name?”
“Final . . . moments?”
Blowing out air through tight lips in annoyance, he said, “ A r e y o u... m

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e n t a l l y d e fi c i e n t i n s o m e w ay? I don’t mean to be
insulting. It’s just, well . . . if you are I can probably save myself some
time. I’m Karsen, by the way. Karsen
Foux.” He paused for a moment, frowning, looking as if he was trying to recall
something. Then he smiled, having mentally retrieved it, and he extended a
hand with the palm sideways. “This is how your sort greets, does it not?”
As he approached her she stepped back reflexively. She crisscrossed her
breasts protectively, twisting herself around to keep clear of him despite his
lack of outward ag-
gression. “He is the Greatness! His... h i s k i n d does not have final
moments!”
“He is flesh and blood, my sweet,” said Karsen. “I assure you, he has final
moments, just like the rest of us.” He looked around at the corpses. “Quite a
fight this was, I’ll grant you.
Brutal, too. A number of them cut down by blades, but oth-
e r s... l ook at this. Their throats torn out. Necks broken. I’ll give your
Greatness credit, he was certainly versatile in the way he killed his enemies.
Now what’s your name?”
She began shaking her head ferociously. She was starting to look less like a
human rational being and more like a trapped beast. Her eyes were hot and
glowering. “Keep away from him,” she said.
4
PETER DAVID

“I don’t have to actually,” he told her. “He’s fair game, under the Treaty. So
why not let me do my job, and you can g o a n d d o y o u r s... what
ever that might be.”
He approached her with slow, mea sured strides. She wanted to remain where
she was; she wanted to find some way to stop him. She kept looking down at the
Greatness for hints or a mea sure of guidance, and nothing was forthcom-
ing. Instead her mind was gradually pointing her down a road that she had no
desire to travel.
She now realized the Greatness’s hide was cold beneath her fingers. No life
pulsed within his frame.
She was alone.
She had never been alone. Not since she had first come to the Greatness’s
court, so far back that she could not recall a time when she hadn’t been
there.
Panic began to seize her. She started trembling, shaking her head as if she
could deny what was occurring. Karsen, concerned, drew closer. “Are you... a
l l r i g h t ? ”
She turned and bolted.
Immediately she nearly tripped over a fallen arm, righted herself, and ran
from the scene, hoping that she could ex-
punge the hideous sights she had seen from her memory, knowing that she never
could.
Soot was settling upon the ground, and her delicate feet were leaving a trail
of prints behind her. She risked a glance over her shoulder. There was no sign
of the creature calling itself “Karsen.”
She let out a sigh of relief that she wasn’t being followed, and then shrieked
as she nearly plowed straight into Karsen, now inexplicably in her path. As it
was she lost her balance, staggered and fell. Karsen stood over her, looking
down im-
passively.
“In answer to what you’re probably thinking... no, you didn’t run in a
circle or circumnavigate the globe,” Karsen assured her. He advanced on her,
his patience ebbing away.
“Now if you’d just allow me to—”
The instant he came within range, she drove a foot straight up and into the

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area of his loins. The impact had the same ef-
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
5

fect on Karsen as it did on males of her own race. He doubled over, his face
becoming pale, and he clutched at his groin, cradling something thankfully
unseen deep within the fur.
She did not wait to see if the attack had any further re-
sults. Instead she ran.
She ran over the battle- scarred land. She ran past the fallen Mandraques,
past the tents that were still smoldering, past the makeshift fortresses and
the trenches that had been dug but presented only minimal protection. She ran
and ran, her heart pounding as if intending to flee the protection of her
bosom. She could barely breathe; her throat sore and rasping from the smoky,
stale air. She was sobbing, but her eyes were dry of tears. She had no idea
what she was run-
ning toward. All she knew was to follow her impulse to get as far from the
scene of the Greatness’s death...
The Greatness’s death!
It was the first time she had actually said those repellent words to herself,
and she still couldn’t believe them. The
Greatness couldn’t die. He was... h e w a s t h e G r e a t ness!
H e...
She tripped.
She didn’t simply trip. Her foot hit something, the exact nature of which she
never knew. Perhaps it had been a stray rock or random piece of a body. Either
way, it sent her sprawling, hurtling through the air flat with her arms out-
stretched as if she were flying. She did not remain airborne.
Instead she crashed to the ground, tearing her skin even fur-
ther, slamming her jaw down with such force that it jarred her brain. She
skidded several more feet before grinding to a stop. The world was swirling
around her. She was sure from the tightening of her stomach muscles that she
was go-
ing to vomit. She did not, although it might have made her feel better if
she’d done so.
She closed her eyes to block out the spinning. Then she heard footsteps in
front of her. It seemed impossible. She had dealt him a fearsome blow, had run
as fast as she could. How could he conceivably have caught up with her?
She tried to pull herself upward, to keep going in the vain
6
PETER DAVID

hope that he hadn’t spotted her somehow, when suddenly rough hands were
yanking her to her feet. She gasped and was twisted around to face two
Mandraques. She recog-
nized them immediately, more from their signs of rank and various ribbons of
lineage than their faces.
They looked battered and bloodied, both relieved to be alive and also a bit
chagrined. One was taller than the other, and the shorter one said, “Ranzell .
. . I think I rec-
ognize this one. What’s her name ...? ”
The one addressed as Ranzell snagged her free hand and shook her, snapping the
arm as if cracking a whip. He carried no sword, but she saw an impressively
large war hammer strapped to his back. Its handle was half as long as Ranzell
himself, and the rough- hewn stone head was flecked with
Mandraque blood. Ranzell’s associate was busy tossing aside his own broken
sword, and was hefting a sword picked up from a corpse, swinging it this way
and that to gauge the weight. Ranzell flinched away slightly, scowling in an

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an-
noyed way that indicated the sword had come a bit too close to him for
comfort. “What’s your name, girl? One of your betters has asked you.”
Her mouth moved with no sound emerging at first. The two Mandraques didn’t
seem sympathetic. Tokep, the shorter one, grinned in a way that only made him
look sinister. “I re-
call now. Her name is Jepp. She’s the Greatness’s plea sure toy, aren’t you,
Jepp.”
She managed a nod. They didn’t seem particularly friendly, but that was
certainly normal for the entirety of their race.
“ Y e s... I a m... I a m t h e G r e a t ness’s. I have always be-
longed to the Greatness.”
“Good t’hear,” said Ranzell. “And now you’re ours.”
“No,” she told him, trying to pull away. “I am the Great-
ness’s... ”
“We passed the Greatness. He’s dead. You belong to—”
“To me.”
They turned and there was Karsen. He was a few feet away, and he must have
moved like a demon to get there, but he didn’t seem especially tired out.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
7

“What’s a Laocoon doing way out here?” said Tokep. His body was tense in a
manner that suggested he was going to attack if he didn’t get an answer he
liked.
“Finding things,” replied Karsen. “In this case, I found her first. First, my
friends. And the laws of salvage, as laid out by the Treaty, say she’s mine.”
Tokep pro cessed the information, and then he visibly re-
laxed. The two Mandraques looked at each other and shared a laugh. “It’s a
Bottom Feeder,” snorted Tokep. “A gods-
damned Bottom Feeder.”
“I’ve always preferred the term ‘reclamation expert,’”
Karsen said.
Ranzell was nodding in recognition. “We’ve even encoun-
tered each other before, haven’t we? Yes . . . it was after the
Battle of the Shifting Plains. You were there scrounging, just like all your
ilk. You ran away at the first sign of trouble, as I
recall.”
“My ilk prefers discretion to foolish altercation.”
“You mean cowardice to bravery.”
“Just so.”
Jepp wasn’t entirely sure how any of this was going to play out, but she knew
she’d prefer to be elsewhere when it did. Still lying on the ground, she
started to edge away, hop-
ing that no one would notice. The hope lasted for as long as it took Ranzell’s
thick round tail to snap around viciously, extending to its full length and
slamming down in front of her, cutting off her retreat. “Stay where you are,
plea sure girl,”
warned Ranzell. “This won’t take long. We just have to send the Bottom Feeder
on his way... ”
“But I found her first!” Karsen said, sounding not a little whiny. His tone of
voice was distressing to Jepp. It certainly didn’t come across as that of
someone she could count on.
Tokep didn’t seem any more impressed by Karsen than
Jepp had been.
“Balls!”
snarled Tokep. “Why’d we find her alone, then?”
“She ran off. I just now caught up with her.” He spoke with uncertainty, as if
fishing for explanations.

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8
PETER DAVID

“Too bad,” said Ranzell. “Not that it would have made much difference. Even if
she’d been with you, we’d still have taken her off your hands.”
“Don’t you have any respect for the Firedraque Treaty?”
asked Karsen.
Ranzell spat on the ground nearby. The liquid was thick and viscous and
sizzled slightly when it struck the dirt. “That for the Firedraques and for
their damned treaty. And that for you as well.”
“That’s not very respectful,” said Karsen. “Now, I’m sure you don’t want me to
register a formal complaint . . .”
Ranzell turned to the Mandraque standing next to him.
“Tokep. Make this idiot stop talking. Knock him out or rip off his head. It
makes little difference to me.”
Karsen stepped back, fear flickering in his eyes. “Well, I . . . I have to say
it makes something of a difference to me.
I . . . I really don’t want to fight.”
“Then go away,” said Ranzell.
“No!”
Tokep abruptly spoke up. “I don’t want to let him off that easily. I’ve lost a
brace of kinsmen this day, almost got killed myself, and now I’ve had to stand
here and listen to a Bottom Feeder spout off? Enough! I’m looking for someone
to hurt and this fool is it.”
“No, look!” and Karsen was trembling. He forced a smile, backing up. “I’ll . .
. just be on my way, all right? She’s not worth it. You’re not worth it,” he
said to Jepp. “No of-
fense.”
The girl looked from Karsen to the grinning Mandraques, and back to Karsen.
“You’re . . . you’re not going to leave me with them . . .”
“Yes, he is,” growled Ranzell.
“Yes, I am,” Karsen affirmed.
“But . . . you need to save me!”
Karsen sighed heavily. “The truth of the matter, girl, is that I am exactly
what they say. It’s a great fool who doesn’t know the reality of himself, and
I am many things, but a great fool is not one of them.” He bowed to the
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
9

Mandraques, his hands clasped palm- to- palm. “War be with you.”
And then, just like that, he was gone, propelled from the scene by his
powerful legs, moving with startling silence.
“Please, don’t!” Jepp cried out, having no clue as to whether her voice was
even reaching him. “You have to save me! You have to be Great for me! I know
you have it in y o u t o... ! ”
Part of her was stunned at her own aggressiveness. It was not within the
purview of one such as she to tell others what to do. In fact, she could not
remember ever having done it be-
fore. Then again, she had always been under the command of, and subject to the
whims of, the Greatness. So it had sim-
ply never come up.
“He was just trying to salvage you so he can trade you for goods and ser
vices,” Ranzell informed her. “If he wasn’t planning to have you ser vice him
in addition. His type is the lowest of the low, girl. You’re better off with
us. Trust me.”
Jepp studied him tentatively, and then withdrew from him.
She saw vast amounts of cruelty within him, far more than in even the
Greatness. Tokep didn’t seem any different. They frightened her. She wanted

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nothing but to distance herself from them as soon as possible.
They were disinclined to cooperate. Tokep advanced, swinging his newfound
jagged sword in Jepp’s direction.
“Where do you think you’re going, girl?” he demanded.
She had no idea why she cried out. But she did, and what she said was
“Karsen!”
“You idiot human!” snarled Ranzell. “He’s gone! He won’t help you!”
Except he wasn’t. And he did.
For Karsen was suddenly in the middle of the clearing.
Confusion flickered upon Karsen’s face for a moment, but then the certainty of
his actions clarified for him what he was about to undertake. He was crouched
low, his legs coiled, one hand touching the ground. His face was twisted in
what seemed grim amusement.
10
PETER DAVID

Tokep needed no further urging. He switched targets and moved. The sword swung
viciously toward him, and Karsen easily vaulted not only over the sword, but
over Tokep him-
self . . . and landed on Ranzell’s shoulders. Ranzell grabbed at him, but
Karsen’s powerful legs pushed off, like those of a swimmer moving through air
rather than water. He vaulted away from Ranzell and landed directly behind
him.
Ranzell yelped and grabbed at his back, his frantic fin-
gers confirming what the loss of weight had already told him: Karsen had
ripped the war hammer off his back. He spun just as Karsen twisted at the
waist, whipping around the war hammer. Ranzell ducked under it. Tokep turned
around to find out what all the yelling was about. The ham-
merhead slammed against Tokep’s skull. The Mandraque’s head practically
exploded from the impact, bits of blue matter and green blood spattering
everywhere, including
Jepp’s leg. She let out a disgusted shriek and brushed it away.
Karsen faced Ranzell, and Jepp saw that the war hammer was covered with much
fresher blood than it had been be-
fore.
Ranzell grabbed up Tokep’s fallen sword and the Man-
draque charged, bellowing in a voice so deafening that Jepp clapped her hands
to her ears. This time Karsen did not leap out of the way, probably because
the Mandraque was ex-
pecting it. Instead he swung the hammer to meet the arc of the sword. The two
weapons came together with a resound-
ing clang, and the sword’s blade snapped in three pieces.
Ranzell stared dumbly at the hilt with a bit of steel protrud-
ing from it that wasn’t more than an inch.
Karsen didn’t stop moving. He spun in place and brought the hammer down,
around and up. It caught Ranzell squarely in the chest and Jepp heard
something crack within
Ranzell. The Mandraque fell backward, his arms flailing, a deep wheezing in
his chest.
Karsen took a step back and coldly regarded his handi-
work. He didn’t appear to have exerted any effort. He nodded
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
11

once, and then dropped the war hammer. Ranzell watched him approach and
actually forced a smile.
“ Y o u ’ r e... s k illed,” he said. “And merciful. That is a—”
At which point Karsen began to kick him with his hard-

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edged, cloven hooves. He kicked him in the face, the chest, anywhere he could
reach. The Mandraque’s scaled hide pro-
vided some protection, but huge welts were rising wherever
Karsen’s hooves came into contact. Even after Ranzell lapsed into
unconsciousness, Karsen continued to beat him for a time, either to make sure
he was really unconscious, or else because he didn’t feel like stopping.
Finally he tired of his activities. He crouched and fumbled at the straps upon
Ranzell’s chest for a few moments before pulling the straps free that served
as the hammer’s harness.
Then he buckled them onto himself, picked up the hammer, and sheathed it on
his back. He turned and scowled fiercely at Jepp, and she shrank back. And
then, like the passing of a summer squall, the ferocity was gone. He looked
around at what he had wrought, and there was regret and even chagrin upon his
face.
Then he turned and started to walk away.
Jepp lay there, watching him, and then slowly got to her feet. He kept on
walking, stepping over the strewn bodies, paying her no mind at all.
She should have taken the opportunity to flee, to get as far away from him as
possible. She surprised herself again with the sound of her own voice saying,
“Am . . . am I supposed to c o m e w i t h y o u n o w ? I... I t h o u
g h t y o u... ”
He stopped. He did not turn to look at her. Instead he sounded rather tired as
he said, “Do what you want.”
He kept going.
She hesitated for a time that seemed far longer than it was, and then she fell
in behind him.
12
PETER DAVID

ii.
It wasn’t easy for her to keep up with him. His stride was far longer, and he
seemed to move with a sort of bounce of his legs. There were so many things
she wanted to ask him, but it was taking all her effort and breath just to
maintain the pace, so she remained silent.
Karsen picked up an equipment bag lying next to one of the corpses and slung
it over his shoulder. After that, every so often, he would stop without
warning and study one of the bodies, removing trinkets or particularly
well-tended weapons. He was limited in the number of swords he could
transport, but a goodly number of daggers found their way into the bag.
At one point he was hunched over a pair of warriors who had cleaved each
other’s skulls, taking some ornate wrist-
bands off them. Then he looked up in surprise as Jepp reached down and into
the armor chest plating of one of them. She fished around, the tip of her
tongue visible as she concen-
trated, and then she extracted a small leather bag. She handed it to Karsen,
who tugged open the restraints and upended the contents onto his open palm. A
variety of precious stones spilled out.
“Mandraques usually have small hidden compartments inside their chest plating
in which they store their valuables,”
said Jepp.
Karsen stared at her. Then a small smile played across his lips.
“Karsen!”
A high loud voice rang across the field. Jepp blinked in surprise.
It was a female of the same species as Karsen. Like him, she was nude from the
waist up. Her breasts were small and hard, and the lines in her face
indicated that she was consid-
erably older than Karsen.
She was also much larger. Her shoulders were wide, her arms thick and
muscled, and her face was blocky with a

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DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
13

pitiless expression. Her hair was tinged with gray. Several large sacks were
slung over her shoulders, each sack stuffed to bursting. Jepp didn’t think she
would have been able to manage even one of the bags. This female was toting at
least five with what appeared to be little effort.
“Karsen!” she said again. “What the hell are you doing with that?”
“It’s a human.” Karsen glanced at her up and down to double- check. “A
female, I’m fairly sure.”
“I know it’s a human female! What are you doing with it?”
He smiled and said with what appeared to be great hope and eagerness, “She
followed me home, Mother. Can I keep her?”
It is a warm, humid day in prehistory, and the small herd of grazing creatures
that dominate the planet are aware of their world’s newness and purity only in
the most abstract of ways. They are oblivious of the notion that change may be
forthcoming, or imminent, or even that the beginning of their demise will be
arriving within moments to set their eventual extinction into motion. They
know only of the great hanging fronds upon which they contentedly munch, and
of the sun that bathes them in its generous rays.
On this par tic u lar day, they are heading in leisurely fash-
ion toward the water, the ground trembling beneath each downward thrust of
their massive feet. They do not have names for themselves. They don’t think in
such terms. They simply exist and, to their knowledge, have always existed,
and always will. They will not have names until they are long gone. The
descendants of the small furred creatures perched in the trees and watching
with rapt attention will do the naming.
The water is cool and refreshing, and it is their intent to lower the small
heads upon their imposing necks and lap
14
PETER DAVID

up as much of the liquid as possible. Very likely they will ease their bulk
into the waters, with the gentle waves lap-
ping against the shore, and be further cooled.
They know that danger exists in their world. They know there are others of
their kind who would turn upon them, attack them, leap on them and try to tear
great, dripping strips of meat from their carcasses. They don’t take of-
fense at it. They fear it, watch for it, but they understand that it is the
natural order of things. One survives the best one can.
The mighty creatures take a bit more time at the trees, selecting which leaves
are the greenest and most inviting to consume. As they do this, they start to
become aware of a change in the air. They do not exactly know what it is.
The faint whiff of something called “ozone” (also to be named at some future
date by the cringing primates’ de-
scendants) makes them think that perhaps a lightning storm is imminent. Not
that they have any clear idea what causes bolts of untapped electricity to
lance across the skies at random intervals, or their tiny ears to be assaulted
by waves of rolling thunder. It is, yet again, something that is simply
natural and to be accepted.
Nevertheless, it is not a lightning storm. They do sense that much. And they
sense something else as well.
It is not natural. For they are nature’s own beauties, the dominant life-
form. They know what is and what isn’t, what should and should not be. Their
nostrils twitch as other, unfamiliar smells float through the air, the faint
ozone aroma overwhelmed by something else, something unknowable and
unnamable.
Vast billowing clouds sweep across the skies, blocking the sun’s rays,

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ushering an early darkness. They don’t seem to be coming from any one place in
par tic u lar, but in-
stead are everywhere, a great shroud being drawn across all living things.
The creatures’ small heads swivel toward one another in mutual concern. They
are all aware that something has changed.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
15

Then comes the thunderous explosion, as if all the as-
sorted smells and sensations had been building toward it.
It is the single loudest noise they have ever heard. And con-
sidering that they have been witnesses to a world still in its infancy, with
infant squalling consisting of the rumbling of earthquakes and the distant
explosions of volcanoes, this is an impressively loud noise by which to be
startled.
They open their mouths, confused ululation warbling through the previously
still air. The deafening sound contin-
ues to echo through the air for long moments and then trails off as if riding
away into the horizon.
Everything stops.
Everything is the same, and yet . . . everything is different.
Then, from the near distance, they hear an all- too- familiar cry.
It is one of the death bringers, one of the great monsters similar to them but
opposite, with its mouth full of sharp, vicious teeth that rend and tear at
their flesh. A monster with small, cruel eyes and tiny arms and huge legs that
can propel it across the air and onto the back of its prey in a heartbeat. The
death bringer’s screech erupts from behind a thick grove of lazily swaying
trees, and immediately the herd of creatures starts for the water, seeking
safety.
Then they pause as they realize the sound of the death bringer is different
from that to which they are accus-
tomed. The cry such monsters cut loose with is designed to freeze prey in its
place, to short- circuit the impulse to run long enough for the death
bringer to cover the distance be-
tween them and sink its fearsome teeth into their hide.
That is not what they’re hearing this time. This time...
. . . the death bringer is afraid.
The death bringer, which fears nothing, is afraid.
This realization is enough to trigger mounting panic in the normally placid
creatures, and the death bringer sud-
denly emerges into the open. It is moving as quickly as it can. It sees the
herd a distance away, makes as if to start toward it, and then pivots with the
intention of heading in another direction.
16
PETER DAVID

The moment’s hesitation is enough to cost it its life.
The newly arrived creatures emerge from the greenery around the death bringer.
They are unlike anything that any in the herd has ever seen. They are small,
with skin pale as the moon. They lope in a two- legged manner not
dissimilar from that of the furred, tree- hugging creatures beholding their
arrival. But they move from side to side, thrusting themselves forward with
their knuckles to gain greater speed.
They descend upon the death bringer, encircling him to cut him off. The death
bringer attempts to crush them be-
neath his clawed feet, or sweep them away with his tail. It does no good. He
manages to pick off one or two of the slower- moving ones as they disappear
beneath his feet . . .

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literally disappear, ground to a fine powder. But the rest are all over him.
He is covered with a sea of undulating white, and they suck out the creature’s
lifeblood. His skin begins to pucker and shrivel, and he staggers toward the
herd, howling as if seeking their help.
It doesn’t work that way. The death bringer knows it, and they know it. The
herd joins its own forces against the death bringer. It does not join with the
death bringer. That would be against the laws of nature, laws that they could
never articulate but know nevertheless.
And the first and foremost law of nature is survival.
The death bringer stumbles, tries to right himself, and then falls, hitting
the ground violently. Death has been brought to him.
Until that moment the herd had remained paralyzed, watching in astonishment.
The shock of the impact, the vi-
brations rippling through the ground and the finality in that “thud” are
enough to break the spell. The herd runs toward the water, its traditional
safe haven. The death bringer despised the water, although they never knew
why, and he was certainly never in any position to explain.
The herd splashes into the water. Despite the urgency of the situation, they
move with grace and majesty. The water surges around them, the waves lapping.
Their huge feet
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
17

sink into the muck, but they pull each foot free with ease as they move
farther out to perceived safety.
Within minutes the entire herd is in the water, moving away from the shore.
They cannot swim, but they have never needed to before. Some distance away
from the shoreline, they stand and watch impassively as the corpse of the
death bringer lies there. The small white creatures have drained it, and are
now experimentally chewing on the meat. They do nothing beyond that. It seems
that the rest of the death bringer is not to their taste. Its fluids have
sated them, at least for the moment.
The newcomers turn toward the herd. Their eyes are glistening, their mouths
drawn back to reveal ridges of sharp teeth that are not as formidable as those
of the fallen death bringer, but are nonetheless impressive enough.
They approach the water’s edge, but do not enter. They look at the sweeping
waves suspiciously.
The herd believes it is safe.
They sense it before they see it, a tidal change that can-
not be ascribed to anything normal. Something is coming, displacing water at a
staggering clip.
The water surges around them and the herd starts to back up. Then it stops,
realizing collectively the danger that awaits it upon the shore. The small
predators are stalking back and forth, eyeing the herd, searching out
weaknesses.
Higher and higher surges the surf, and then something tears upward from below,
blasting out of the water and re-
leasing a challenging bellow that is louder than anything any member of the
herd has ever encountered. It dwarfs the herd, and the small white creatures
are jumping up and down in appreciation of the monstrosity’s entrance, their
own kill lying shriveled and pathetic nearby. The newly ar-
rived water monster growls a second time, and then its head stabs forward, its
mouth opening wide. A member of the herd is snatched up, the monster’s teeth
sinking in.
Then the mammoth head tilts back, bites down, and swal-
lows the herd member in two deftly bisected pieces.
18
PETER DAVID

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And then it attacks again, and again; its appetite seems insatiable.
The herd is now in full panic. Some of the herd makes it to shore and finds
itself in a life- and- death struggle for survival as the small white
creatures surge forward, eager for fresh sustenance. The rest of the herd
tries to cope with the monster from below. A few of them just stand there,
helpless and hopeless. They have the right idea. In the end, none of it
matters, because they are all going to die, and it’s only the how of it that’s
to be determined.
The air is filled with the crunching of bones, and slurp-
ing, and death cries. The remains of the death bringer are already attracting
flies and smaller insects seeking an easy meal.
The small white creatures and the being from the depths take no notice of the
furry animals clinging to their tree-
top havens, watching with wide eyes. They are witnessing something truly
historic at a time when the only capability of history being recorded is on a
subconscious level. That is what happens now. The spectacle of otherworldly
death and destruction being introduced to the still unnamed world is so
traumatic that it fashions the beginnings of racial memory.
They, and their kind, will witness the advent of these otherworldly beings,
and more besides. Beings that will be-
come the basis for legends, the rudiments of those things which go bump in the
night.
Relatively speaking, the newcomers are a mere handful.
Yet they will annihilate the dominant species, turn upon each other, and
eventually wipe out one another.
They are the First Wave.
There will be two more.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
19

THE COUNTRY OF FEEND
i.
Nagel, king of the Ocular, loved the quiet time he took to do research. He
liked the smell of it especially.
He would sit at his desk as the dark hours rolled one into the next, with some
ancient tome stretched out in front of him. His study was simple and
unassuming, as was the king himself. The desk was a family heirloom,
constructed from large slabs of stone found on the Salsbree Plain, the
original home of the Ocular. That was before the Ocular had relo-
cated to Feend because of the appeal of the long dark.
Nagel lived in a castle that was likewise an heirloom, al-
though it had actually predated the arrival of the Ocular themselves. The
story went that there had been an outpost of Morts (short for “Mortals,” or
“humans,” which was the manner in which some others chose to refer to them) in
the castle—somehow overlooked during earlier conflicts—who had tried to
stave off the Ocular incursion. They had lasted for a while, but not all that
long, and eventually the Ocular had triumphed, as they always did.
The only drawback was that the castle, like the book, had been designed for
the far smaller Morts. Renovation had been performed on Castle Skops (as it
had been renamed, after one of the earliest and greatest of Ocular warriors)
over the years, but every so often, Nagel still managed to bump his head on a
low doorframe.
Nor was turning the pages in the books easy for him.
Nagel stood at fifteen feet high. So naturally the rest of him was likewise
sizably proportioned, and the books were in-
tended for far smaller creatures than he.
Nagel leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his eye tiredly.
There was nothing else in the room to distract him, aside

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from piles of books stacked on shelves in the gray bricked corner of the
otherwise unadorned chamber. Nagel had a long hank of silky black hair,
braided, which began in the middle of his otherwise bald skull, arched
slightly upward, and then hung halfway down his back. His ears were ele-
gant and pointed, surprisingly delicate in contrast to the al-
most crude roughness of the rest of his broad face and muscular body. He was
bare- chested, as was his habit, wearing a large brown woven kilt around his
middle and thick sandals on his feet. When he sighed, as he did now in
annoyance, it sounded like a tornado trapped inside of a cave.
Not only was the annoying smallness of the book getting to him, but also the
scribbling upon the pages continually frustrated him. Sheet after sheet was
decorated with small, black markings that he knew were the equivalent of
what the Morts used for written language.
If it weren’t for the translation texts pioneered by one of his more
scholarly ancestors, he would have been com-
pletely stumped. His ancestor, Clowdus, had worked with a
Mort slave of the time to develop a written text that would translate Mort
words into Ocular writing and vice versa. Un-
fortunately the Mort had died, as Morts were wont to do, be-
fore Clowdus could complete the job. Furthermore, even with the Mort’s aid,
there had been only so much Clowdus could do because the texts were in a
variety of scripts and the Mort knew only one of them. So Nagel struggled
along with the translation texts as best he could, reading those vol-
umes that were decipherable while staring at the others with boundless
yearning.
It made no sense at all to Nagel that the Morts conversed in a variety of
languages. The entire point of language was to communicate in both written and
oral manners. If one person in one area was saying something incomprehensible
to someone in another area, how could the creatures inhab-
iting the world ever have a hope of pulling together? Partic-
ularly at times of global threat?
Well, the answer to that was obvious, wasn’t it.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
21

They hadn’t been able to. As far as Nagel was concerned, that had made all the
difference.
But if the Morts were gone, or at least mostly gone (he knew some survived
to this day, although he’d never seen one himself), their odor remained.
Any text he encountered always had that deep, almost in-
toxicating smell. It was thick and musty and full of promise, although the
promise would never truly be fulfilled. Some-
times Nagel would spread a text in front of him, close his single great eye,
flip through the pages quickly so that the aroma actually rose up from the
pages, and breathe in through his nose so deeply that he fancied he might
actually inhale the printed scribbling right off the paper.
It made him feel like a time traveler, giving him a much more visceral sense
of the creatures who had written the books than merely looking at the text
possibly could. The text was incomprehensible, but scent was universal.
He had not been around during those long gone days; it had been much before
his time. All he knew of the Morts was what he’d learned as he’d grown up and
been groomed for his position as king of the Ocular. Unfortunately what he’d
learned of them hadn’t been all that flattering, and his continued studies had
gone a long way toward explaining just why the Morts had been so easily
overcome. If they couldn’t even communicate something as simple as “Help me!”
without the aid of a translator, then one was forced to conclude that it had
been a miracle they’d lasted as long as they had.

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“Still becoming misty- eyed over the Morts?” came a sar-
donic voice from behind him.
Nagel did not even bother to turn his head. “No, honored
Phemus,” he replied. “Not misty- eyed at all. I shed no tears for them as a
race. Only for the knowledge they possessed that’s now lost to us.”
Two medium- sized strides, both several yards long, and
Phemus had come around the other side of the desk. Phemus was a head shorter
than Nagel, but still reasonably tall for an
Ocular. His face was more square than the generally triangu-
22
PETER DAVID

lar shape of Nagel’s skull, and the tips of his ears drooped a bit as a result
of his age. His head was shaved, and his single eye was deep blue, as was
every other Ocular’s eye . . . ex-
cept Nagel’s, which was brown. He wore thick robes of red and purple, and when
he stood—as he was now doing in front of Nagel—he was absolutely immobile.
“ Y o u r q u a i n t n o s t a l g i a... e v e n y o u r c u r i o u s
e m p a t h y...
for an all- but- extinct race is admirable, my king. It nicely underscores
the compassion for which you’re so well k n o w n . B u t r e a l l y... I
t h i n k y o u g i v e t h e m f a r t o o m u c h credit. They were
here, and now they’re all but gone. The stronger race won out and, in the end,
all that matters is strength.”
“Yet you describe me as compassionate, which is the an-
tipathy of strength,” Nagel pointed out.
“In you, it’s a strength.”
“Very smooth, Phemus. Very smooth.”
“Well,” said Phemus, smiling politely, “I did not become this polished
overnight. I had many years practice as your fa-
ther’s advisor.”
“As you will have with me, I daresay.” Nagel leaned back in his chair; it
creaked slightly under his weight. “My father loved this place,” he said
wistfully. “This room, I mean. He would be in here for hours. When I was
younger, I’d some-
times come in here and couldn’t see him.”
“Couldn’t . . . see him?”
“Because he’d vanished behind the stacks of books.”
Phemus looked dubious at that. “Your father wasn’t the smallest of
individuals. How did he manage to do that?”
“That’s how high the books were stacked, I suppose.”
Clearly Phemus still doubted the scenario that Nagel was describing, but then
he tilted his head slightly in deference to Nagel’s recollection. Changing the
subject, he said, “I
thought you might want to look out the window.”
Nagel studied him for a moment in puzzlement, then shrugged and rose from
the chair. He walked across the study to the large window, carved from the
rough- hewn stone, and looked out and down.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
23

It was dark outside, as it was more often than not in
Feend. Nagel leaned out, and saw a hundred of so of his sub-
jects milling about. They had not ventured far from their homes, though. There
were vast, green fields where the Ocu-
lar could assemble, play games, cluster in large groups to hear minstrels sing
songs of great deeds. Those fields were not far from the castle or the
small, simple homes that stud-

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ded the general castle proximity. No one was on the fields.
Instead they were gathered into small groups of three or four, standing
around just outside their houses. Presumably they were chatting, talking
peacefully. Strangely there was no sense of celebration, no joviality.
“They’re afraid,” said Nagel. “I can smell it from here.”
“Yes.”
“Afraid of the Piri.”
“Yes,” Phemus said again.
“Damn them,” Nagel muttered, and then, stepping back from the window, he
shouted
“Damn them!”
and slammed one of his massive fists against the wall. The wall didn’t shake
from the impact, but a few bits of loose brickwork fell.
“By ‘them’ can I assume you mean the Piri rather than our own people?”
“Of course,” said Nagel impatiently as he leaned against his desk. He shook
his head wearily. He’d been feeling much older than his relative youth lately.
He had left adolesence behind, but not very far behind, and still felt naked
and unsure in a world that expected much of him.
“It’s so unfair, Phemus. So blasted unfair. Feend should be a paradise for our
people. The sunlight is minimal in this c o u n t r y... ”
“Meaning our people can see most of the time,” agreed
Phemus, “since in the harsh light of day, we are all blind...
all save you.”
“ A l l s a v e m e . Y o u k n o w , P h e m u s... s o m e times I
feel guilt over that. The happenstance of birth that gave me sight at all
times while my people can only see in darkness.”
24
PETER DAVID

“It’s foolishness, my king... a l t h o u g h I say that with all respect,”
Phemus added hastily.
Nagel didn’t notice the apparent slight. “Why do things have to be this way,
Phemus? Why is it that we cannot sim-
ply embrace the darkness that our nature drives us toward?
Why do there have to animals like the Piri who exist only to prey upon us? To
torment us? To force us to live in fear?”
“No one forces us to do anything, my king. We’re pre-
sented with a situation. The way we respond to that situa-
t i o n... t h a t i s a choice.”
“I do not choose this,” Nagel said angrily, pointing in the direction of the
window. “And my people should not have to choose this. This is supposed to be
a day of celebration. The fiftieth anniversary of the day we took this castle,
and of our settling in Feend. And they huddle and cower, no doubt jumping at
the slightest shadow. This is... ”
He was becoming more and more angry, and now it seemed as if the study could
no longer contain his mounting ire. Nagel spun on his heel abruptly and
stalked through the corridors of the castle. Phemus followed quickly, doing
his best to keep up.
“Merrih!” he bellowed, and again, “Merrih!”
When no immediate reply came to his shout, he stopped, turned, and said to a
guard, “Where is Merrih? Have you seen her?”
“Perhaps her chambers, my king?” Phemus suggested.
“Yes, of course,” said Nagel, and he started off in another direction, only to
be halted in midstep as a young female
Ocular sprinted toward him. She was adjusting the shoul-
ders of her white gown laced with gold filigree, and her long braid of
hair—similar to Nagel’s own—swung wildly back and forth. A twinkling red
pendant—a gift from her late mother—dangled around her neck. Her eye was the
deepest blue of any in the kingdom, or at least Nagel thought as much. She

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reached barely up to his shoulders, but she was young, and Nagel had the
feeling that she was going to wind up taller than he when she reached her full
growth years from now.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
25

“Uncle, how you shout!” she said in exasperation.
Phemus’s brow furrowed. “Have respect for your king, young lady.”
With a slightly mocking expression, she repeated herself but genuflected while
she said it. This drew an even fiercer scowl from Phemus, but Nagel merely
chuckled softly.
Then, his face growing more serious, he said, “Merrih. Why are you not out
with the citizens? It’s a night of celebra-
tion.”
“I know that, Uncle, but . . .” She shrugged.
“What? What is it?”
“Well . . . you know. The Piri . . .”
“Ahhh, the Piri,” he said, as if encountering the notion for the first time.
“We are nearly three times as big as the aver-
age Piri. Do you think it meet that we should be afraid of them?”
“I haven’t thought of the . . . the ‘meetness’ of it. I just . . .
I . . .” Her hand fluttered against the pendant.
“We have to set an example, Merrih.” He took her by the shoulders. “Our people
look to us for guidance. For leader-
ship. We cannot let them down.”
“I suppose not. It’s just . . .”
“Just what?”
She looked from right to left as if afraid that she was be-
ing observed. Then, very softly, she said, “I dream of them.”
“Oh, Merrih.” He rolled his eye.
“I do! I dream of them coming at night, of attacking me, o f... ”
“Merrih, you have to face your fears,” he said in exasper-
ation.
She stared at him defiantly. In her attitude and posture, he could see so much
of his late sister. It made his heart ache sometimes, just to look at her. “I
don’t see you out there. I
don’t see you facing any fears. I just see you standing here, lecturing me.”
“And that’s something I’m going to attend to right this very moment.” He
extended an elbow to her and said chal-
lengingly, “Coming along?”
26
PETER DAVID

Phemus looked from one to the other, and it seemed to
Nagel that Phemus was judging him. And guards and vari-
ous castle servants who’d been passing by were looking as well. Nagel
suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Through sheer stupidity and impulse, he’d
placed himself in an in-
delicate position. If Merrih defied him, left him standing there with his
elbow out, he’d look like a great weak fool who couldn’t even control his
own niece. It wasn’t as if
Nagel was concerned with being perceived as in effec tive and therefore
subject to violent overthrow or assassination.
Such activities were relegated to the Oculars’ past. They had grown beyond
that . . . or at least had been forced to by
Firedraque treaties and other impositions.
Still, a king ruled by respect willingly given. If Merrih brushed him off . .
.

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But she didn’t. Instead, she wrapped one of her slender arms around his and
gazed up at him with polite patience, waiting for him to lead the way.
He stifled his sigh of relief, nodded as if he had fully ex-
pected her to cooperate, and then headed for the nearest stairs. The guards
bowed their heads slightly as he passed, as was the custom and due deference
to the king.
Phemus followed as always, gliding across the floor so quietly that one would
almost have wondered if his feet were even touching it.
ii.
The night was cool, as it so often was in Feend. The citizens reacted with
plea sure to the approach of their king. He warmly greeted everyone he saw,
addressing them by name and thus making them feel honored and special.
He knew that their ac cep tance of him was not the easiest of things. His
father had ruled for a very long time. An entire generation of Ocular had been
born and raised to adulthood during the reign of his father. So it was
disconcerting for them to have to make the transition. Although it seemed
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
27

trite, Nagel was grateful for the fact that he, too, had been named “Nagel.”
As preposterous as it sounded, it likely made it easier for his subjects to
adapt since the king at least had the same name.
“My friends!” he called out, his voice carry ing up and down the great
pathways that stretched as far as the eye could see. People were massing,
moving toward him, eager to hear what he had to say. “I notice little
celebration among you! The fields are empty. You cluster closely, like grazing
animals. There is tentativeness in your jubilation that would fly in the face
of this great day’s intent. If I did not know better,” and his mouth twisted
in an almost contemptuous sneer, “I would think that the mighty Ocular are
afraid of something!”
There was much shifting from one foot to the other and there were many
chagrined looks. He heard someone mut-
ter something and he called out, “Did I hear someone com-
plaining of the Piri?”
Ner vous looks then, one Ocular to the other. More foot shifting. “They are
as nothing to us!” Nagel said firmly.
“They are animals! Animals to be exterminated, that is all!”
“But they are not cooperating with their extermination.”
It was a single voice speaking out clearly, rising above the others. Nagel
recognized the voice’s own er immediately: an el der ly Ocular named Riel.
Wielding a walking staff for sup-
port, he moved toward the king with a steady lurching man-
ner, inevitable considering he only had one foot.
“When we first came here,” growled Riel, “the Piri were few. Given time,
they might even have died out. But they’ve grown in both number and strength
because of us, High-
ness. Or were you under the impression that I lost this,” and he pointed at
the right ankle where a foot had once rested, “in a game of chance? The Piri
took it.” He turned and faced his audience. It didn’t matter that he had told
the tale so often that they’d all heard it who knew how many times.
They still listened with respectful attention. “I was out there,” and he
pointed in the general direction of a forest in the distance. “Lying with my
back against a tree, taking a
28
PETER DAVID

rest, and suddenly two of the disgusting vermin were tear-
ing at my ankle. I was damned lucky to get away in two pieces, leaving the one

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behind. And I’ll never forget the dis-
gusting noises coming from them as they devoured my foot.”
Riel proceeded to replicate orally the slurping sounds as vividly as he could.
Judging by the looks of disgust on the adults and even greater horror from the
youngsters, he was succeeding admirably.
Exercising regal prerogative, Nagel said, “Yes, yes, we know. But it was, by
your own admission, Riel, very far away. The Piri nest in the catacombs, and
those are nowhere near here.”
“But you never know when and where they’ll be lurking,”
Riel pointed out.
Nagel’s face darkened as if a great anger was seizing him. “And that is our
destiny, then? To live not only in per-
petual darkness, but perpetual fear? That is not who we are,” and he thumped
his chest. “Not unless you think we are soft! Perhaps we should resume our old
warring ways.
Firm up the softness. Take drastic steps so that we do not turn into
frightened, mindless sheep, cowering near our homes. Look at us!” and he threw
wide his arms to take in the entirety of the assemblage. “Are we not mighty?
Are we not the things that should be lurking in the nightmares of the Piri?
Should they not fear us? What sort of tribute are we to offer to our ancestors
this day: a tribute tainted by our cowering, afraid of our own shadows? Is
this how we honor their bravery? Their heroism? Their warrior spirit? By let-
t i n g t h o s e... t hose blood- sucking terrorists dictate where we
will and will not go?”
“No.”
It was Merrih who had spoken, and Nagel looked at her with barely contained
surprise. She had a ready smile upon her lips, and she was nodding
approvingly. “You speak ef-
fectively and with great passion, Uncle,” she said, and then spoke quietly so
only he could hear and added, “Although, as always, you use a hundred words
where ten would do.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
29

He smiled at that even as she raised her voice and called out, “I, for one, am
ashamed that I even hesitated to enjoy the night.”
And with that, her long braid swaying, Merrih headed to-
ward the fields. With three great strides, Nagel was by her side. He laughed
merrily as if she had said something re-
markably witty and then, in a low tone, asked ner vous ly, “Are they
following us?”
Merrih risked a sidelong glance and then smiled. “You should have more
confidence in your people, Uncle.”
Sure enough, the Ocular were following their one- eyed king. They were
doing so in silence, giving the proceeding more of a funereal air than a
celebration of a joyous time.
But at least they were following him. Or perhaps they were following
Merrih. Either way, there was some forward mo-
tion occurring, and that was more than enough to cause re-
lief to flood through Nagel.
They arrived at the field, and Merrih immediately slipped out of her footwear,
tying the laces together and slinging it around her neck. Then she ran across
the grass, clearly en-
joying the feel of the green blades against her bare feet. She sang a
traditional song of Ocular triumphs over their ene-
mies, dancing in a small circle, her arms thrown wide and her head tilted
back, basking in the moonlight. The moon was at the time of what the Ocular
called “Open Eye,” its full glowing radiance shining down upon them. It
remained that way for several days every month, and was considered a time of

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good luck.
The adults hung back, and Nagel was about to say some-
thing to them. But then some of the very young Ocular, with whom Merrih had
always been extremely pop u lar, slipped from their parents’ grasping hands
and ran to join Merrih in her dance. Several of the parents cried out in
alarm. Then they quickly silenced themselves. Nagel knew exactly why:
They were concerned over how it would look if full- grown members of the
Ocular race were acting in a tentative fash-
ion while their children boldly indulged in celebration with-
30
PETER DAVID

out the slightest care of threats or monsters. One could chalk it up to the
childrens’ naïveté . . . but also to cowardice on the part of the parents.
So instead they watched and worried as more and more young Ocular pranced and
cavorted on the field. And then, slowly, one by one and then by the dozens,
the adults came out to join them.
Within an hour the entire populace of Feend was enjoy-
ing itself upon the great field, displaying nary a care in the world.
Looking every inch the confident and vindicated ruler, Nagel strolled through
the proceedings, his arms draped be-
hind his back. His people greeted him or nodded to him or smiled at him in
such a generous way that it was as if there had been no hesitation in their
festivities. As if they had been out here all this time, and were
beginning to wonder when in the world their leader would be joining them.
Food was trotted out in short order, and the air was filled with the pungent
scent of cooking meat. Nagel’s nostrils flared in anticipation. Various groups
were engaging in as-
sorted games, and over in one corner a well- known troupe of court
thespians were performing one of their most beloved playlets, a retelling of
a long- ago confrontation be-
tween one of the oldest and greatest of the Ocular, Polyphe-
mus, and a pissant little Mort named Oolissus. Nagel was fascinated by the
rendition, and they were just getting to the part where Polyphemus was about
to roast Oolissus on a spit when he sensed his own advisor at his side.
“Enjoying the tales of your namesake, Phemus?” he asked.
Phemus shrugged. “I have heard it many times before.
Truly, my king, although I know the tale gives great amuse-
ment to the masses, I don’t understand the allure. It tells the story of a
triumph over a Mort, and an ancient Mort, for that matter. It’s as if an adult
went on at length boasting over the outwitting of a child.”
“Don’t dismiss such triumphs so lightly,” Nagel replied.
“Some of those children were extremely crafty.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
31

“I’ll grant you that,” Phemus said with a rare smile. “But still . . . we have
other, more potent challenges to worry about.
Potential allies or potential enemies, depending upon—”
Nagel rolled his eye in exasperation. “Don’t start, Phe-
mus. It was yeoman’s work encouraging my people to set aside their concerns
for the Piri and enjoy themselves... ”
“I’m not speaking of the Piri,” Phemus said. “The Piri are animals and
enemies, first and last. I’m speaking of those who have the potential to be
either enemies or allies.
The fact is that the Mandraques... ”
“Oh, the Mandraques,” said Nagel dismissively. “They are far too obsessed with
trying to lay waste to each other to worry about us.”

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“And what of the Trulls...? ”
“The Trulls?” Nagel looked positively bewildered. “What of them? They maintain
neutrality in all matters. The Trulls pose no threat . . .”
“Presuming their neutrality is legitimate.” Phemus low-
ered his voice, glancing around as if worried that someone was listening in on
them. “I have word through channels that their claims of neutrality may not be
all that they ap-
pear. That they may be just that: claims. But that they were working in
secret to better position themselves for domi-
nance... ”
“And who might these ‘channels’ be?” Nagel said skepti-
cally.
“I regret that I cannot tell you at this time.”
“You regret?” Nagel’s brow darkened. He could display a fearsome scowl when he
was of a mind to. “Honored Phe-
mus, I wish to remind you of who you are . . . and who I am.
Your ‘regrets’ mean nothing, while your refusal to answer a direct question
from your liege means far, far more.”
“With all respect, my king, my ‘regrets’ mean everything and more. I have
constructed a very delicate web of intelli-
gence gathering. The information that I have obtained in this way has served
you in good stead in the past . . . nor did you find fault with the way in
which I gathered it. When I
speak in confidence with my sources, then in confidence it
32
PETER DAVID

must remain, for I have given my word. Would you have me, whom you address as
‘honored,’ violate trust?”
“It’s not a matter of that,” Nagel began, “it’s... ”
That was when the screams began.
Nagel knew instantly. He knew from the direction they were coming in. He knew
in the pit of his stomach, in the darkest and blackest reaches of his soul, he
knew. Yet he had to go through the motions of not knowing, for if he al-
lowed himself to succumb to the knowledge, he would have collapsed right then
and there.
He sprinted across the field, Phemus trying to keep up with him and failing
utterly. The children were backing up, their arms waving in terror, and they
were all howling at once. Parents were charging forward, grabbing up their
youngsters in their arms, and looking just as panicked as their offspring.
They were running away from the source ofthe horror, while Nagel and a
number of other Ocular were trying to push through. Nagel shouted commands
as loudly as he could, so loudly that the tops of the highest trees were
shaking, and still it was all he could do to shove through the stampeding
crowd.
“No further! No further, Highness!” someone was shout-
ing, and he skidded to a halt several feet shy of the hole. He stared down at
it, gasping for breath, still unable to pro cess fully what it was he was
seeing.
It was more than a hole. It was a pit, at least four feet across and who knew
how deep. There were still pebbles and clods of dirt rolling down into it.
From the pit itself there was only darkness.
At the edge of the pit were Merrih’s shoes. The ones she had removed and was
carry ing slung around her neck.
There was, however, no sign of Merrih.
Nagel let out a roar liked the damned, a roar so thunder-
ous that children who were already upset began to howl even louder. And
then, ignoring cries of “No, Your High-
ness!” and “Sire, don’t!,” Nagel lunged toward the hole, throwing himself

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flat, and trying to clamber into it.
His shoulders were far too wide for the diameter of the
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
33

hole, but still Nagel managed to get his head and one arm down into it.
Surrounded as he was by pitch blackness, he was able to see perfectly.
So he had a clear view of the Piri who were coming right at him.
They were not moving upright. There wasn’t room for them to do so. Nagel was
able to make out a network of what appeared to be tunnels, like something
carved by a great ant infestation, and Piri were slithering toward him from
all sides, gliding along on their bellies while pulling themselves forward
with their clawed hands. Their skin was pale and pasty, their eyes were
blazing with nightfire, their thin lips were drawn back in that hideous
death’s head gri-
mace that haunted many an Ocular child in his sleep. Their teeth were
slightly extended from their mouths, clicking to-
gether eagerly.
“Give her back!”
howled Nagel, and he grabbed at the nearest Piri. The parasitic creature
dodged around and clawed at Nagel’s arm. Nagel felt a deathly chill where the
nails cut into his flesh, and then the Piri darted forward and sank its teeth
into Nagel’s outstretched arm.
With a roar of pain, his movements constricted, Nagel waved his arm about
until the Piri shook loose. But there were more coming from all directions,
and the only thing that saved him was that they were getting in each other’s
way trying to reach him. If they had been able to attach themselves to him en
masse, he might well have been drained dry before he could do anything to
prevent it.
The closest Piri made another try at Nagel’s arm, but this time Nagel snapped
his hand around quickly and it clamped across the Piri’s head. Nagel’s hand
was so large in compar-
ison with the creature’s skull that it totally encompassed it.
The Piri tried to pull loose, but it was too late. Nagel fiercely twisted his
hand and ripped the Piri’s head clear of its shoulders. The Piri’s body fell
down and away, and the others in Nagel’s immediate sight line backed off,
retreating into the depths of the tunnels they’d burrowed.
“Give her back!”
he continued to shout, even as strong
34
PETER DAVID

hands grabbed him around the upper body and hauled him back to the surface.
There were horrified gasps from all on-
lookers as they saw the Piri’s head in his hand, pale blood dripping from the
base of its throat.
“Are you satisfied, O mighty king!” It was the contemp-
tuous voice of Riel, limping toward him, and he was point-
ing to his leg that ended at the ankle. “What they did here, to me, wasn’t
enough for you, was it?” He stabbed a finger angrily at Nagel. “You denied the
danger! You thought you were above it, that we could pretend we were safe.
And your niece has paid for your blindness! She got what she de-
served for trusting you, and you—”
Later, try as he might, Nagel would not remember the next few seconds. All he
knew was that one moment, Riel was ranting at him, and the next moment, he had
Riel pinned on the ground with both hands wrapped around the elder’s throat.
Riel was gasping for air, his skin turning blue, his eye bulging out of its
socket. He was slapping ineffectually at

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Nagel’s arms. The head of the Piri was lying nearby, having fallen out of
Nagel’s grasp. Other Ocular were upon Nagel, trying desperately to pry him
off Riel during the mere sec-
onds of life that remained to the old one.
It was not without effort that Nagel forced himself to re-
lease his grip on Riel’s throat. He allowed himself to be pulled away and
hauled to his feet. As he stood there staring down at the fallen Ocular, the
only sound that could be heard at that moment was Riel’s desperate gasping for
air.
“To your homes. All of you,” commanded Nagel, and the
Ocular needed no further urging. They vacated the area within seconds, leaving
only Nagel, Phemus, and a handful of guards who clearly felt that their
presence was better served there than anywhere else.
“We have to go down after her,” Nagel said. His words sounded like a death
knell in the darkness.
“ B u t... m y k i n g... ” P h e m u s b e g a n .
“Don’t say it.”
“It has to be said, my king! She cannot be retrieved! The
Piri have her. She is gone.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
35

“There must be a way.”
Phemus glanced tentatively down the hole. “Who would have thought they would
have been able to tunnel this far?
Or perhaps the catacombs extend much further than we pre-
viously thought . . .”
“Do not speak of these things as if they are purely aca-
demic matters, Phemus!” growled Nagel. “Merrih’s life is at stake!”
“Merrih’s life is ended, my king, and the sooner you ac-
cept that—”
Nagel started to advance on him, and automatically Phe-
mus took a cautious step back, almost making a misstep and tumbling down into
the pit himself. “The tunnels down there,” he said with urgency. “Were they
large enough for you to enter to pursue them? For any Ocular, save children?
Were they?”
Nagel’s teeth rubbed against each other, making a dis-
turbing grinding noise. “No,” he finally conceded.
“And are you planning to convince your people that their children should be
sent in to attack the Piri?”
“Of course not.”
“Then let them be, my king. Let your people live their lives as they wish,
huddled in their homes... ”
“Live their lives in fear, you mean?”
“At least they’re living!”
“No!”
roared Nagel. “That is no life! It’s a... a m o c k e r y of life, a half
life! To live in the shadow of perpetual terror?
A f r a i d t h a t s o m e... s o m e v e rmin might snatch them away at
any time? It cannot be allowed to continue! Don’t you see that, Phemus?”
“I see that we are in a tragic situation... ”
“If that is all you see, then you see nothing,” Nagel said fiercely. “If these
creatures are truly burrowing around un-
der our feet, how long before they come up beneath our very homes, eh? Like
the vermin they truly are? How long before they come to us in the cover of
darkness and steal away more of us, before... ” H e p u t a h a n d t o
h i s b r o w a n d moaned softly, as if all the energy had been drained
from
36

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PETER DAVID

him. “Gods... M e r r i h... I... I p r o m i sed to protect her . . . I
swore an oath, always to look after her, to... ”
“I . . . am truly sorry, my king.”
Nagel stood there like a great one- eyed statue. “Your sor-
row means nothing, honored Phemus,” he said finally. “Nor does mine. The only
thing that will mean anything... i s t h e end of these things.” And he
turned and brought down his foot upon the head of the Piri that was lying near
him. It crushed easily beneath his weight, a mass of pale red spreading
outward from under his foot. “And I will find that way, Phemus. I swear to the
gods, and on Merrih’s soul, I
will find it.”
THE CITY- STATE OF VENETS
i.
{Gorkon watches his brethren float in a pleasant haze. He watches his father,
in par tic u lar, look at him with an utter lack of recognition, and not
caring in the slightest who he is, and for the first time in his life,
something within him snaps.}
{He does not know what it is during this par tic u lar tide that causes him
to come to the end of his endurance. He had thought it would become easier,
not progressively more diffi-
cult, to see his brethren drifting blissfully in a Klaa- induced twilight
state; his parents, his two sisters, his friends, all wrapped neatly and
tidily in the arms of Klaa, looking at him blankly when they look at him at
all. They cannot share the place in which their minds dwell, nor do they have
any inter-
est in doing so. Even when they look at each other, they do so in such a way
that Gorkon cannot tell for certain if their mu-
tual presence is actually registering upon them. Either way, it does not
especially seem to matter to them.}
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
37

{But it matters to him. He had not realized until just now, just this moment,
how much it matters to him.}
{His people are graceful beneath the water as they float, frolic, and play
with one another. They are more power-
fully built than almost anything that dwells beneath the waves, and thus fear
nothing. But that is not because of the power that pulses beneath their sleek,
gray hides. It is be-
cause they are oblivious to any danger, thanks to the Klaa.
Once it was the sea that nurtured them, supported them, blessed them with its
all- encompassing presence. Now it is the Klaa, and they are unaware of the
sea or each other or anything.}
{For the life of him, Gorkon doesn’t know whether his roiling emotions stem
from frustration or jealousy. Does he despise his people because of what they
are? Or because of what he is not, and cannot ever be?}
{In the end, it really doesn’t matter. All that matters is that Gorkon has
reached his breaking point, and action must be taken. As the lifespan of the
Markene is mea sured, Gorkon is not at all old. Just barely out of his
adolescence.
But he resolves that he will grow no older.}
{Like all the Markene, his legs are powerful beyond mea -
sure when it comes to propelling him through the water.
They are qua dru ple- jointed so that, when he moves through the water,
his legs almost undulate in their up- and- down rhythmic kicking motion.
In terms of land use they are inef-

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ficient, but the Markene have no interest in existing on land anyway. That is
the province of the Merk, something that the Markene are more than happy to
leave to them. The
Markene have the sea, they have their Klaa, and all are con-
tent.}
{All save for Gorkon, who must attend to this burning frustration in his heart
immediately, before another moment passes.}
{Fortunately, he knows exactly where to go: The Resting
Point.}
{The Resting Point, little more than a strip of grass and rock protruding from
the water, is not large, and not far.
38
PETER DAVID

Once upon a time, when the Markene were concerned about such things as
hopeless love or extreme age to the point where existence was intolerable, the
Resting Point was where Markene went to dispose of themselves once and for
all. It was not a difficult undertaking. The water surround-
ing the Resting Point was nice and deep. All one had to do was go toward the
bottom of the seabed, head toward the surface with sufficient velocity, launch
at the proper angle, and one could beach oneself nicely upon the Resting Point
and then just . . . lie there. The tide never brings the water high enough to
immerse the Resting Point, so it was just a matter of allowing nature to take
its course.}
{At first, as Gorkon approaches the Resting Point, he does so with a heavy
soul. The closer he draws to it, though, the more relaxed he feels, and the
more his heart sings with joy. If there is any doubt in his mind as to the
rightness of his actions, all he has to do is envision his brethren floating
around in their Klaa- induced haze and it is sufficient to steel his
resolve once more.}
{It wasn’t as if they’d always been absorbed into the nerveless joys of Klaa.
Gorkon seems to remember that, in his youth, Klaa had been only an occasional
pastime. He is sure there had been other things. At least, he thinks he is
sure of it. As he has gotten older, however, Klaa had seemed to dominate all
their waking time, and even much of their sleeping time. As a result, Gorkon
had felt more and more isolated. Indeed, some might argue that this moment,
this fi-
nal act of Gorkon’s life, is no shock at all, but instead in-
evitable.}
{By the change in the water around him, Gorkon knows that he is coming to the
Resting Point. He has swum past there any number of times, and is familiar
with the reefs and topography of the area underwater, as well as the fact that
the current turns warm there for no discernible reason.
He angles down, down toward the bottom, and rests there a moment contemplating
his fate. He had wondered if, when faced with the final instant of decision,
his resolve would waver. Such does not seem to be the case. He feels utterly
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
39

alone in the world. If he ends his life, none would miss him, so what is the
point in prolonging it?}
{He pauses a moment before making the final leap. His feet sink into the silt.
He used to find the shifting of dirt be-
neath his webbed toes to be amusing. Now such hollow en-
tertainment feels exceedingly quaint, even trivial, harking back to halcyon
times when he knew nothing about nothing.
The truth is, he still knows nothing about nothing. He’s just more willing to
admit it now, and further, admits the futility of trying to learn. He attempts

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picturing the faces of his loved ones in his mind. He tries to envision their
individual expressions, but is not able to. Each one seems much like the
other. Pure, bland bliss. No aspiration. No individuality.
And the worst part is, whenever they’re not that way, they are cranky and
irritable until such time that they can be that way again. They are with him,
and all they want to be is away from him and back with the Klaa. He means that
little to them.}
{With that serving as the final impetus, he springs from the bottom of the
sea. He almost imagines that it pulls at his feet, trying to drag him back, to
make him reconsider his decision. He does not do so. The efficient undulation
of his legs sends him higher, faster, the water hurtling past him. The drag
against his sleek body is almost stimulating, a trill of plea sure working
its way through him. The sea is caressing him, kissing him farewell. It is the
single most exotic, and erotic, moment of his life, and then he bursts from
the sea in a swell of water, angling through the air.
He throws his arms to either side, his webbed fingers flex-
ing and grasping at nothing, and then lands heavily. The impact jolts him and
he feels that familiar heaviness set-
tling into his chest. It’s the heaviness that always occurs whenever he
emerges from the water. Occasionally his kind are known to bask in the sun,
but they can only do so for short periods before the sheer weight of their
massive bodies makes it impossible for them to remain. He can breathe the air
for a time, but not forever, and his body will dry out in short order either
way. It will be a race to
40
PETER DAVID

see whether his body collapses under its own weight before the lack of water
proves fatal for his respiratory system.}
{He lies flat upon the grass, making no effort to turn his head. His great
black eyes remain open, although a thin, clear shell of an eyelid clicks open
and closed over them to protect them. His gray skin is hairless, his snout is
small but round and not unattractive. His mouth is slightly open, drawing in
air in large gulps in hopes of hastening his end.
On his back, his dorsal fin quivers slightly, the only outward manifestation
of the fear that is beginning to suffuse him.
The wisdom of his course of action is starting to elude him, but he refuses to
let himself be swayed by last minute un-
certainties.}
{He bids a silent good- bye to his family and wonders if they will even
notice that he is gone. Probably not.}
{And that is when he hears the voice.}
“What the scorch are you doing there?”
The voice was that of an older man, although not that old.
It sounded more confused than anything else, as if it could not fathom what
Gorkon might possibly be doing in this p l a c e... w h i l e a t t h e s
a m e time knowing precisely what was going on, but just not wanting to make
an issue out of it.
Moreover, the voice sounded vaguely familiar, but Gorkon couldn’t quite place
it. Gorkon felt embarrassed. He didn’t know why he should, for he was about to
die, so, embarrass-
ment should not have been a prominent concern for him. Yet it was.
He wanted to keep his face staring up at the sky. He wanted his body to shut
down soon, sooner, immediately.
He felt the beginning of pressure upon his respiratory and circulatory system.
It was not, however, transpiring quickly enough. In the meantime the voice of
the newcomer was continuing to wheedle at him, and finally he looked to see
who it was that was speaking and ruining the elegance of his suicide.
Gorkon was both impressed and horrified by the answer.

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The individual who had been speaking to him, and who
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
41

now seemed quite pleased that Gorkon had deigned to look at him, was a stark
contrast to Gorkon. Gorkon’s people wore no clothing, save for a few random
ornaments signify-
ing their heritage or representing awards presented them by the rulers of the
Sirene. Clothing would simply serve as a useless drag as they traversed the
currents. It was very dif-
ferent for the Merk, the species that—along with the
Markene—constituted the race known as the Sirene. The
Merk traversed both land and water with equal facility. They were the
thinkers, the rulers, the aristocrats. Most of all, they controlled the Klaa,
and had always done so for as long as
Gorkon knew.
It was a Merk who was now gazing upon Gorkon with a bemused air. He was
clearly a noble, but wore his nobility as a beggar wore rags: it hung upon him
in a shapeless fashion, unattended to and unpleasant to contemplate. His upper
torso lacked definition and was flabby. If he was or once was a warrior, he
had done nothing to maintain what ever fighting form he once had. Both
species of the Sirene possessed webbed fingers and toes, but that was the only
resemblance that the newcomer and his kind bore to the heavyset, water-
bound Markene. The Merk’s scaled skin was deeply brown, colored by the sun
that was unforgiving to the more sensi-
tive hide of the Markene. The Merk’s legs bent only at the knees, making his
kind far less efficient swimmers than the
Markene, and the dorsal fin that the Merk possessed was merely a small, almost
vestigial bit of flesh and bone on his back.
The Merk also sported hair, unlike the Markene. Their hair did not resemble
traditional hair so much as it did sea-
weed. Despite appearances, it was not plant growth, but merely thick strands
of pale green hair that had a seaweed-
like appearance. Merk had black, pitiless eyes like the
Markene, but they were heavily shielded by extended brows that were thick
bone ridges, reducing what ever problem the sun might represent.
This par tic u lar Merk, gazing upon Gorkon with such un-
abashed curiosity, was floating not far from the Resting
42
PETER DAVID

Point. He was sitting in a small, one- man boat that he was moving by means
of a foot- operated propeller device. At the moment, however, he was
allowing it to float nearby, ap-
parently so he could simply stare at Gorkon and find some mild amusement in
him.
“Did you not hear me?” he prompted. He never raised his voice, nor spoke in a
tone that indicated anything other than genteel befuddlement. “What are you
doing out here?”
“I am attempting to kill myself.” He felt a bit sheepish, since his stated
intention sounded so preposterous, border-
ing on inane.
If the Merk had formed an opinion about him, and that opinion was somehow
diminished by Gorkon’s intent on self- demise, he did not indicate it as
such. “Ah. Well. Don’t let me get in your way then.” He then leaned back in
his one- occupant vessel and watched, as if waiting to be enter-
tained at some sort of per for mance.
“ Y o u a r e... m a k i n g m e uncomfortable,” Gorkon said at last.

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This did not seem to bother the floating Merk particu-
larly. “Ah. Well. I daresay your discomfort will cease once you have died. How
long do you think your death will re-
quire?”
“I . . . do not know,” Gorkon admitted.
“Well, I do have other places to be and other things to do, so if you could
find a way to hurry it up, I would be most obliged.”
Gorkon was becoming cross with the situation. He even propped himself up
slightly. “I have never come to the Rest-
ing Point to die before!”
“Is there somewhere else you usually go?”
“You mock me!”
“Never! I would never do such a thing. Never in... a l l right, yes, I mock
you. But only because you are about to destroy yourself and therefore will not
survive to make me pay for my disrespect.”
Now Gorkon’s ire was truly beginning to rise to the break-
ing point and beyond. His despair was not being accorded
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
43

the dignity for its release that he felt it was due. “Why, y o u... I don’t
care if you are nobility, you—”
“I would have thought,” replied the noble, whoever he was, “that you
wouldn’t have cared about anything at all.
That is the point of suicide, is it not? That you are beyond caring?” He
shrugged. “Or perhaps I am misunderstanding that. Please clarify it for me, if
you wish, for it is something with which I do not have a great deal of
familiarity.”
Gorkon sighed heavily, his breath rattling around in his chest. “I . . . I
suppose it could be argued that way, yes,” he admitted.
“Ah. And yet you care what I think. Care so much what I, a total stranger,
think of you, that you’re becoming posi-
tively incensed about it.” His chair continued to bob in the water, like a
floating and taunting conscience. He tilted his head slightly, studying Gorkon
with great thought. “You are strange for a Markene. I thought all your type
drifted in the sea all day, dreaming of . . . well, I wouldn’t presume to
know of what. But in a sort of stupor.”
This characterization of his people caused Gorkon to bris-
tle slightly, but he felt a sort of inner deflation, as he had to admit to
himself the accuracy of it. He prided himself on be-
ing reasonable, and using his brain in a way that his brethren deliberately
chose not to. Was he to castigate or at-
tack this... t h i s t aunter . . . for the unthinkable act of speaking
the truth? With a heavy resignation, he said, “Yes.
So my kind does.”
“But you do not.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I choose not to.”
The floating Merk scratched his head thoughtfully with his long fingers. “Is
that so?”
That was all he said, with no implication beyond that. Yet
Gorkon unaccountably felt shame, because he knew it was not so, and he
couldn’t help but feel that this person some-
how knew it wasn’t so as well. “No,” he admitted. “I am . . .
I have violent reactions to Klaa. I tried it, I did. But there
44
PETER DAVID

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was nothing pleas ur able in it for me. My head felt as if it were about to
explode. I had seizures, and awful visions of . . . of darkness and misery. I
did not see what the others saw. I have no idea what I saw.”
“The truth, perhaps?”
Gorkon looked at him oddly, not sure what to make of that comment. “What
truth? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” said the Merk dismissively.
“No one knows what I’m talking about. Ask my wife. Ask anyone. Even I don’t
know what I’m talking about half the time, and the other half, I only pretend
to.”
“I see,” said Gorkon, who didn’t.
A long moment of silence passed, and then the Merk said, in a voice so
dripping with sympathy that Gorkon wasn’t en-
tirely certain whether he was being sarcastic or not, “It must be terrible to
be so lonely in the midst of a crowd.”
“It is,” Gorkon allowed.
“I can see why it would drive you to this.”
“You do? So you understand.”
“Oh, no,” said the Merk quickly. “No, I don’t understand it. You have other
options, so I don’t understand why you take the one option that permits no
others. But, as you’ve made quite clear, it’s your business, not mine. Do as
you wish. Good day... o r a t l e a s t m a y what’s left of yours be
good.”
With that he began to paddle, angling the rudder so that the little boat
started to move away.
Gorkon had felt nothing but irritation and humiliation from the moment the
Merk had shown up, unasked and un-
desired, and began speaking in that taunting and derisive manner. With the
Merk departing, Gorkon had exactly what he’d wanted: solitude and the
opportunity to let nature take both its course and his life. However, as was
so often the case, having something was turning out to be not as reward-
ing as wanting it.
The result was that Gorkon unaccountably felt aban-
doned. Before he gave full thought to what he was doing, he had pushed himself
off the rock and eased his bulk back
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
45

into the water. “Wait!” he called, his voice burbling water since half his
face had submerged before he could splash back up to the surface. A fast kick
of his legs and he was be-
side the boat. The Merk looked at him with guarded curios-
ity. “What options?”
“Options?”
“Yes. You said I had other options.”
“Did I?” The Merk frowned, looking thoughtful, as if he were scrounging around
for some tidbit of something rat-
tling around in his skull. “Oh. Yes. I suppose I did.”
“What are they?”
“How would I know?”
“How—?” Gorkon suddenly felt ready to climb back out onto the rock. “How would
you know?
You’re the one who t o l d m e... ! ”
“I said there were options because there are always op-
t i o n s... u n l ess, of course, you foolishly kill yourself, in which
event there no longer are, as I believe I mentioned.”
“Yes, you did. But I don’t know what they are... ”
“What do you call yourself?” the Merk demanded abruptly.

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“ G - G o r k o n... ”
“My dear Gorkon,” said the Merk with a hint of scolding, “if you, with all
your brain power completely unimpeded by the use of Klaa, are still unable to
come up with any possi-
bilities, then it really doesn’t say much for your species, now, does it? Do
you never think about things?”
“No. Never.”
“Oh.” The Merk blinked. “Well . . . your candor is com-
mendable, I suppose.” He pursed his lips, pondering the sit-
uation. “Well,” he said finally, “now is as good a time as any to start,
wouldn’t you say? Tell you what, Gorkon: I’ll strike a bargain with you. You
come back to this place in five suns.
I give you that long to come up with options. I’m willing to make the
commitment of my time if you are.”
“I . . .” Gorkon hesitated.
“What have you to lose? You can always take your own life five suns from now,
can you not?”
46
PETER DAVID

“I suppose.”
“Then it’s settled.”
“All right . . .”
“I shall see you in five suns. Do not disappoint me.” He began to paddle away
in his boat.
“And what if I do disappoint you?” demanded Gorkon.
“Then you’ll disappoint yourself as well.”
“Wait!”
The Merk stopped the small boat, tossing a glance over his shoulder, his face
puckered in question.
“ Y o u... d i d n o t t e l l m e y o u r n a m e . ”
“Ruark,” the Merk said.
“That’s interesting. We have a ruler by the same name.”
“An astounding coincidence,” Ruark deadpanned as he paddled his boat away. “I
never get tired of hearing about it.”
ii.
Tulisia Sydonis was not in a good mood. She was, however, in a typical mood.
“Where the depths have you been, Ruark?” she de-
manded of her husband.
Ruark, for his part, smiled and bobbed his head and said, “Yes, my dear,” as
he padded across the floor of their bed-
chamber.
Her idiot husband’s response had been a non sequitur, but she was used to
that. Once she would have reamed him out for it; now it didn’t even warrant a
comment. Tulisia had slept late, as she often did, and was rising from the
watery enclosure that was her bed. She rubbed the water from her eyes and ran
her webbed fingers through her seaweed hair.
She muttered, “I can already tell, I’m not going to be able to do a damned
thing with it today.”
“You worry far too much, my dear,” Ruark assured her.
“You are the standard of beauty for all Venets. If you were to do nothing
with your hair save to leave it in a great hanging
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
47

clump, all female Merks throughout the land would emulate your daring new
style.”
She eyed him suspiciously as she eased herself out of the enclosure. Standing

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naked and dripping on the floor, she de-
manded, “Are you mocking me? I believe you are mocking me.”
“Alas,” he said sadly, “I hear that often. I’m beginning to think I’m
incapable of giving a compliment and having it understood as such.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing. That’s what I always talk about.”
“Yes, I know,” she said impatiently. “Where were you?”
“Out thinking.”
“You don’t think.”
“Yes, I know,” said Ruark. “I was hoping to remember how to go about it. It
did not come. Maybe it shall another day.”
“I wouldn’t hold out any great hopes of it.”
Clearly having heard the conversation, her servants knocked at the door.
Tulisia bade them enter, and two young females padded in quickly, each holding
large towels. Tulisia held her arms straight up as they proceeded to rub her
down.
A third servant rolled in a large mirror so that Tulisia could study her naked
body with a keen and unforgiving eye, as she did every morning.
Despite her age... i n deed, because of her age... s h e decided she was
satisfied with her body’s state this day. She still possessed the roundness
and hardness of a Merk half her age. Any Merk male in his right mind would
thirst to take advantage of her body. That naturally explained why
Ruark, as always, displayed no interest. This suited Tulisia just fine. She
had other, bigger things to worry about.
“Unpleasant dreams last night?” he asked out of the blue.
The fact that he inquired at all startled Tulisia. Dried of her overnight
moisture, she was being fitted by her aides with the gown she’d be wearing
that day. It was mostly a single bolt of purple cloth that wrapped around her,
leaving one breast exposed, as was the current fashion. “How did you know?”
she demanded suspiciously.
48
PETER DAVID

“You splashed around and cried out. It wasn’t all that dif-
ficult to determine,” he said. “What was bothering you?”
“Do you care?”
“No,” he said with his usual, insufferably cheerful tone.
“But I figured it would be polite to ask.”
“ I f y o u m u s t k n o w... ”
“Which I don’t,” he was quick to assure her.
“ ...I w a s h a v i n g n i g h t m a r e s a b o u t t h e T r a v e l
e r s , ” s h e continued as if she hadn’t spoken. Since she rarely paid at-
tention to him when he did speak, ignoring him came easily to her.
“The Travelers?” he echoed.
“Yes,” she said impatiently, “the Travelers.” She turned this way and that,
intently regarding her image in the mirror.
She was delicately placing combs in her hair, each glimmer-
ing with a delicate, translucent pinkish glow. “It was brutal.”
“I daresay. They certainly give me nightmares.”
“Of course they do. And I am not certain how much longer I will choose to
allow them to have that sort of con-
trol over me.”
Her words were so forceful, her manner so threatening, that her fearful
servants slightly backed away from her. She noticed their cowering and
bristled in anger. “What manner of Sirene are you,” she demanded of them,
“that merely mentioning the Travelers causes you to shrink in terror?”
When they didn’t respond, she swung her hand sweepingly and bellowed, “Go!
Just go!” Offering no argument, they hustled from the room, almost dropping
various towels and clothing items. Tulisia Sydonis watched them go, and then

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she turned toward Ruark Sydonis while pointing with quiv-
ering finger. “You see! You see what we have to tolerate? It is wrong, Ruark.
Wrong in every aspect, wrong no matter how it’s regarded.”
“My dear, is it not early in the day for this sort of discus-
sion?” he said pleadingly. “You’ve only just awoken. You know you’re not at
your best when you’ve first dried. Be-
come aware of the—”
“I’ll tell you what I’m aware of, Ruark,” she told him.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
49

Several long, tapering pieces of cloth were draped from her wrists, and they
brushed across the floor as she swung her arm about. “I am aware that three-
quarters of this godsfor-
saken sphere is water. I am aware that we absolutely, un-
equivocally, control the waters. Do you understand that? As the ’Draques
battle each other and lay waste to one another with mind- boggling
ferocity, quarreling over every scrap of terrain they can, no one dares to
challenge us for supremacy of the seas and oceans. No one... s a v e f o r
t h e T r a v e l e r s .
And they go where they wish and do what they want with-
out offering us anything in tribute. Not a single damned thing. How dare
they?”
“Well, my dear,” he said coolly, “I suppose they dare be-
cause they serve the Overseer. And they know that none would go against the
Overseer. I mean, I know you, milady
T u l i s i a , a n d I k n o w n o t e v e n y o u w o u l d... ”
His voice trailed off as he saw the defiant look in her eyes. He cocked his
head slightly as if he had lifted a rock and were staring with great
fascination at the life scuttling around beneath it. “You know... I w a n t
e d t o t a l k t o y o u about the party you’re planning for a few suns
from now. I
thought it might be nice to—”
“Don’t change the subject,” she told him, advancing on him. “You’re the one
who brought it up.”
“Did I?” His eyes were wide with innocence. “I intended to bring up nothing.
I chat. I talk. I blather. That’s what I
do. That’s all I do. I know this of a certainty because you’ve told me that
any number of times.”
“I’m aware of that, you fool,” she snapped. “But you started discussing the
Travelers and the Overseer. If you do not have the nerve to see the discussion
through . . .”
“See it through to where?” he asked helplessly. “The
Travelers are the Travelers. They are who they are, and go where they wish,
and none can gainsay them. It has always been that way, and will always be
that way as much as we might desire otherwise. The Twelve Races assembled can-
not stand against the Travelers or the Overseer.”
“The Twelve Races are scrambling for the crumbs that
50
PETER DAVID

the Overseer and his slaves leave in their wake. They are too divided to be of
any threat.”
“They would be of no threat even if united.”
“We do not know that.”
“We do not?” he asked.
“No. For none have ever stood up to them. Can you imag-
ine, Ruark Sydonis?” she said as she approached him. He flinched

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automatically, but she merely rested her hands upon his shoulders. She spoke
with growing intensity. “Can you imagine if the Sirene led the way? If we
defied the
Travelers? Let them know that we will no longer be taken for granted or submit
to them? That rather than treating us as prisoners on this world, and they our
guardians, they in-
stead realized that we are a force to be reckoned with?”
“But we are prisoners on this world,” he pointed out.
“The fact that we are a force to be reckoned with is why we’re here in the
first place, isn’t it? Is why our ancestors were sent here, marooned
here... ”
“That’s the way it was,” she said fiercely, “but it is not the way it always
has to be. At what point does the Damned
World become ours?”
“Well . . . I suppose never.”
“I suppose differently,” she replied. “I need to know right here, right now,
whether you will be with me or not.”
“With you in what, my dear? I do not even understand what it is that we’re
discussing... ”
“Ohhh!”
Her hands had been resting on his shoulders, but now she shoved him away and
stepped back, shaking her head. “Are you completely feebleminded? Do you not
understand anything?”
“No. Well . . . yes, and no... a c t u a l l y , ” h e f r o w ned, “I’m
not entirely sure how to answer that question because of the way it’s phrased.
Perhaps if you... ”
“Oh, shut up,” she snapped.
“All right,” he said, instantly agreeable. “If that’s what you desire, that’s
what I’ll do.”
She was no longer paying him any mind. She was, instead, envisioning the
Travelers. Mighty, invincible, striding the
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
51

Damned World, certain in their dominance. For a very long time, the
frustration had eaten away at her like a cancer, giv-
ing her no peace in her waking or her sleeping moments.
She strode away from him, threw open the great doors that opened onto their
balcony. She stepped out, closing her eyes, feeling the sea breeze in her
face, and sniffing the moist air.
Above, the sun’s rays beamed down caressingly. She looked out upon the city-
state of Venets. The canals stretched be-
neath her, with the Merk swimming or boating along, going about their
business. Several of them spotted her standing there, looking down upon them,
and they waved eagerly in hope that she would notice them. Tulisia did so,
smiling and nodding and waving her hand in response.
Tulisia couldn’t help but dwell on what it would be like if it were more
than just the Sirene who looked up to her rever-
ently and sought her blessing. What if it were members of all the Twelve
Races? What if their dominance of the water upon the Damned World could be
made to have real significance?
She looked contemptuously at the man she’d married in order to acquire power.
He smiled in his typically vacant manner. She snorted and turned away from
him, waved once more to the throngs below and imagined the canals, the
courtyards, every square inch of Venets crowded with members of the Banished
from every corner of the Damned
World. All of them, calling her name, singing her praises, blessing her for
freeing them of the constant oppression of the Overseer and his Travelers.
Whether they walked and swam and flew forward together in unity, or destroyed

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one another in one great, final confla-
gration, it would be their decision to make and their future to chart.
She stood there upon the balcony, drinking in the future that had yet to be
writ, as her husband—whom she intended to dispose of at the earliest
opportunity—continued to smile beatifically.
52
PETER DAVID

THE UNDERGROUND
She kneels before the Orb. It is hers and no one else’s. It is both her
strength and her weakness. Her distorted features are even more distorted in
its gleaming, curved surface.
She gazes at it lovingly, longingly. It is a gift from the gods, her only
gift. When she speaks to it, she likes to pretend that it is a direct line to
the gods themselves. That they are listening to her when they have forsaken
all others.
“Give me the will,” she whispers, delicately placing her hands on either side.
It is smooth and cold to the touch.
“Give me the will to deal with my sons... t h e w ill to love them, to help
them. And the will not to kill them with my own hands.”
The Orb makes no reply save that which is in her own imagination. But, for the
time being, it serves.
i.
Ulurac kept his head down as the tunnel walls rushed past him. His helmet was
low to his head, and his long brown hair—braided and normally hanging to the
small of his back—was tucked up and around and shoved underneath the helmet.
He squinted against the blast of dank air that hammered at his face, his
broad, flat nose twitching as it al-
ways did uncontrollably when he was apprehensive. He clutched the sides of the
small but speedy vehicle with his meaty fists and kept waiting for the car to
fly off the track and crash headlong into the nearest slab of rock. He knew
deep down that it wouldn’t happen. Never in the long his-
tory of Trulling—the art of riding a Trull car—had there been such a
mishap. That didn’t prevent him from continu-
ing to white- knuckle it the entire ride, silently cursing the

name of his mother as he did so. Always silently, though.
Never, ever aloud. He was terrified, but he wasn’t insane.
N o w E u t o k... E u t o k n e v e r had such concerns. Ulurac, in a
sideways manner that was theoretically supposed to take his mind off his
concerns, cast his thoughts back to the days when he and his brother, Eutok,
would go Trulling to-
gether. Even in those days Ulurac would be seized with barely controlled
panic. Not Eutok, no. He would open his m o u t h a n d r o a r a n d h o
l l e r l i k e t h e d a m n e d... p r o v i d i n g the damned were
in an exceptionally good mood. His voice would echo through the tunnels, and
every Trull within earshot would know when the two young princes were on
their way to some new misadventure.
Since that time, Ulurac and Eutok had gone in very dif-
ferent directions, become very different people. There was not much about
Eutok that Ulurac would have desired to emulate, but . . . that reckless
fearlessness was certainly one of the few things.
Knowing that he was approaching the termination point, Ulurac began to massage
the brake handle. The Truller car automatically started to slow. Ulurac
realized that he’d been holding his breath for some time, and tried to force
himself to inhale and exhale normally. He was only partly success-
ful. “Breathe, breathe,” he muttered to himself, for it cer-
tainly wouldn’t do to have him step off the Truller and look like a ghost.

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Or worse, trembling and frightened over a ride that young Trulls would have
enthusiastically experienced.
The Truller rolled on its tracks off to one side and bumped to a gentle halt.
The hiss of air being released from the brakes was drowned out by the loud and
prolonged
“phewwwwww” that came from Ulurac’s lips.
He vaulted from the Truller, took several steps, then men-
tally chastised himself and reached back into the Truller.
His hand wrapped around his walking staff as he withdrew it. His fingers slid
over the intricate carvings that featured stylized repre sen ta tions of
all those who had gone before him and had borne the position he now had:
Spiritu Sanc-
tum, the spiritual leader of the Trulls. Eventually, he knew, 54
PETER DAVID

his own likeness would be carved onto the staff when his successor took over
the position. He hoped that, at the very least, it would be someone who had an
easier time Trulling than he.
He made his way through the caves, and as he drew closer to the Hub, he
encountered more and more of his people. Without exception they bowed to him,
greeted him, whispered his name in reverence. Some went so far as to kneel,
bending their stubby legs and bowing their heads in earnest supplication of
receiving his favor. They asked for his blessing for some thing or another: a
new child, a new tool, a new hole in which to reside. All these and more be-
sides, with such frequency and to such a degree that he was beginning to
wonder if it was healthy. The way in which they asked for his “blessings”
wasn’t all that different from the way one might pray to a god. Ulurac did not
for one in-
stant desire his people to think of him as a god, or even re-
motely godlike. He had far too many things to worry about to contemplate such
a blasphemy.
So to each of them he muttered a few words, occasionally while placing a hand
on his or her head, and then off he would go. He’d brought a cloak with him,
more as a symbol of his calling than out of any need for protection. Now he
raised the hood to help obscure his face so that, while his fellow Trulls
would know a man of faith walked among them, they might not realize it was
Ulurac himself until he was already gone.
He moved through the Hub, and wondered why it seemed a bit dimmer than he’d
recalled. He looked to the glowing lanterns that lined the wall, all of them
powered by hotstar chips. He tapped one of them lightly with his finger and
the lantern flickered a bit, flaring a shade brighter before re-
turning to its previous brightness.
Although the Trulls resided in the underground, they had never developed the
sort of eyes that could see perfectly in the dark. That had been as much by
choice as anything else, for those would have made them uncomfortably
similar to the Piri, and that was a resemblance no Trull wanted. The
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
55

lanterns had always been there to provide a comforting lu-
minescence. It concerned Ulurac a bit that the lanterns didn’t seem as bright
as before. But the hotstars never var-
ied in their energy output, which meant the problem was in his eyes. That did
not sit well with Ulurac at all.
In the distance he could hear the continued clanking and clanging of Trulls
hard at work. When he had lived in the Hub full- time, the constant and
steady noises had be-
come so much a part of his daily existence that he had ceased noticing them.

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Whenever he made the occasional return, as he was doing now, the overwhelming
and inces-
sant noise presented itself anew. It made him wonder if
Trulls who lived in the Hub weren’t slowly going deaf and they just hadn’t
figured it out yet. His eyes beginning to fade, his people losing their
hearing. The future of the
Trulls did not appear as bright as it once was. And the sad truth for Ulurac
was that there was no one he could talk to about it. He carried this burden,
as he did all burdens, deep in his heart.
There were guards at the main gates of the Hub; each was armed with
gargantuan axes that had heads carved from the hardest stone. Ulurac slogged
forward, one massive foot in front of the other, his staff making a steady
clacking noise on the rocky tunnel floor.
The guards did not even seem to look at him, and yet in unison they snapped
their axes around so that they were holding them firmly crosswise across
their chests at atten-
tion. They turned to face each other in perfect synchroniza-
tion, as if operating via some sort of mutual cue. Then they stepped back,
gripping the gate handles and swinging them wide so that Ulurac could enter
unmolested. The stone gates swung open on oiled hinges, and Ulurac entered
dis-
playing a swagger that exuded a confidence he didn’t feel.
What does she want?
The thought kept rattling through his brain.
What does she want and what did I do? Or, even better, what did Eutok do that
I’m going to be blamed for?
As if capable of reading his very thoughts... a n a t t r i b u t e that
Ulurac would have ascribed to his brother on any num-
56
PETER DAVID

ber of occasions... E u t o k s t r ode toward him as the gates swung
noiselessly shut behind Ulurac.
Through long years of habit, Ulurac tended to move slowly, even ponderously,
as if the weight of years hung heavily upon him. He wasn’t entirely sure when
he had ac-
quired that habit. Perhaps it stemmed from the fact that so many people asked
him to stop and give of his time that he’d conditioned himself not to walk
very fast.
Eutok was quite the opposite. Built similarly to his older brother, Eutok
moved with his shoulders hunched and his head down, almost as if he was
prepared to walk right over anyone unfortunate enough to drift into his path.
What he lacked in subtlety, he more than made up for in an air of self-
importance. He was clad in black and brown leathers, his stone ax strapped to
his back and his sling dangling from his hip. He looked ready to go to war,
which was his typical mode of dress. His eyes snapped with the sort of
amusement that Ulurac rarely, if ever, felt. Ulurac resented the hell out of
him for it, and felt guilty about that resent-
ment . . . but not too guilty.
Without preamble, before Eutok could get a word out, Ulurac waddled toward his
brother and demanded, “What did you do?”
Eutok affected a look of bewildered hurt. “Do? What did
I
do?” he grunted. “What makes you think I did anything at all?”
“Because Mother summoned us,” shot back Ulurac, hands on his hips, “and
typically when she summons us, it’s because you’ve been up to some mischief. A
mischief that I
invariably get blamed for because she still thinks that I’m supposed to be
riding herd on you.”

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“I don’t need anyone to ride herd on me!” Eutok informed him. “I’m
Chancellor of the Trulls! I ride herd on others!”
“Yes, well,” and Ulurac swaggered past Eutok, disdain-
ing to cast a glance at him, “since I’m the older brother, ap-
parently Mother feels I have that added responsibility of attending to you, no
matter what sort of exalted title you take.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
57

“You’re older by ten minutes, and I didn’t ‘take’ the title,”
Eutok protested as he fell into step just behind Ulurac. “It was given me by
our people after my pre de ces sor passed away.”
“Said passing away occurring thirty seconds after your ax was found buried in
his skull.”
“Pure coincidence.”
Ulurac snorted at that. It was not Eutok’s naked ambition that bothered him so
much as it was his wide- eyed protests that he was not responsible for the
trail of violence that lay behind him in his career. “As you say,” he said,
and waved dismissively.
Any Trulls they passed scrambled to get out of their way.
Most of them lowered their gazes, for it was considered to be a sacrilege to
look upon both the Chancellor and the Spiritu
Sanctum. Worse than sacrilege, for none was truly fit to gaze upon that much
glory at one time. The only Trulls who met
Ulurac’s gaze were the very young, who stared at them with the sort of
innocence that only children could muster. If their parents happened to notice
they were looking, they quickly cuffed their heads and made them look away.
This bothered Ulurac. It seemed to him lately that there had been a growing
gap between himself and his people, and this sort of behavior only widened
that gap. Unfortunately, he had no time to dwell on it. The queen, their
mother, had summoned them, and concerns over the relations between nobility
and the masses would have to wait for another day.
If only the damned hammering would stop...
ii.
Eurella rubbed softly at either side of her head, trying to ease the distant
pain that she had to deal with almost daily.
It was not the constant sound of the hammers. She was used to that. Eurella
didn’t know whence the pain had orig-
inated, or why it was being inflicted upon her. Healers had been baffled over
it and prescribed increased and fervent prayers to the gods, but none of it
seemed to make any dif-
58
PETER DAVID

ference. So Eurella had resigned herself to the concept that the gods simply
hated her, wanted her to suffer, and she was required to withstand all that
they wished to foist upon her.
Why? Because apparently having her people, as well as eleven other races,
dumped upon this forsaken Damned
World wasn’t enough to atone for what ever offenses they might have
committed.
As she waited for her sons to show up, she drummed her fingers idly on the arm
of her chair that had been carved en-
tirely out of a rock wall. Certainly it seemed to her that they were taking
their own sweet time getting here. Then again, she couldn’t be entirely
sure. She’d started to notice these days that she was forgetting things, or
having less aware-
ness of them. Things like time, for instance. The truth was that she wasn’t

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entirely sure just how much time had passed.
For all she knew, they actually were going to get there rea-
sonably swiftly and she had no cause for complaint.
But she was the queen of the Trulls, and the last thing she could afford was
to present any air of uncertainty.
So it was that when Ulurac and Eutok marched into her throne room—a spartan
affair as befitted a leader of
Trulls—Eurella lurched up off her throne to greet each of them with a sharp
blow to the head. The swing of her right hand caught Ulurac by surprise and
staggered him so thor-
oughly that only by leaning upon his staff did he avoid tum-
bling over and landing comically on his backside. It took her only a half
second to pivot and swing her other hand back toward Eutok. That was all the
time he needed to brace himself. She hated to admit it to herself, but his
swift reac-
tion impressed her even as she smacked him on the side of his head as well.
Having prepared for the impact, Eutok rocked back slightly on his wide heels
but otherwise man-
aged to hold his ground.
“ W h a t t h e b l a z e s...? ”
Ulurac sputtered as he hauled himself to his feet. Eutok merely shook his head
with the air of one who was often put- upon but chose to suffer in si-
lence.
Eurella flopped back into her throne and allowed her
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
59

head to sag back as if what she had just done had been a tremendous exertion.
She sighed heavily and then scratched the thin fuzz of beard that covered her
chin.
“Mother!” Ulurac demanded her attention but she waved him off, choosing
instead to pick a few scavenging bugs out of her beard before looking at him.
“Why did you do that?
What possible reason—?”
“I want to know which one of you did it,” she said coolly but with an
undercurrent surging with the ferocity of a lava flow.
Ulurac and Eutok exchanged looks of silent confusion and then suspicion.
Clearly each one thought the other knew what Eurella was referring to, and was
resenting the other for having landed them in some sort of trouble. Either
that or one of them—or both—were putting on an excep-
tionally effective pretense.
They simultaneously began to speak and then both promptly fell silent so that
the other could proceed. A cou-
ple more of these false starts, and finally Eutok made a point of bowing
deeply and gesturing that Ulurac should go first. The Spiritu Sanctum took a
cautious step forward and asked tentatively, “Mother . . . which one of us did
what?”
“Did you think I would not hear? Did you think I would not summon you
immediately upon learning of this travesty of a development?” she demanded,
her voice beginning to rise. “And by the way, considering how long ago I
summoned you, you certainly both took your leisure in responding!”
“Our leisure?” Eutok spoke up, annoyed by the accusa-
tion. “I’ll have you know... ”
“ Y o u ’ l l... h a v e... m e... k now?”
she demanded, stretching out each single- syllable word so that it consumed
three, even four beats. She interlaced her fingers and cracked the knuckles so
that the sound echoed around them. “And what, pray tell, will you have me
know?”
“He forgets,” Ulurac cut in before Eutok could open his mouth and sink himself

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even further. “He forgets what he would have you know.”
60
PETER DAVID

“Do you?” she demanded of Eutok.
He stared at her with a carefully blank expression. “I
can’t recall.”
“Mother, with all respect,” Ulurac continued before Eu-
rella had time to decide whether Eutok was being sarcastic or not, “we are
both uncertain as to what, specifically, you’re referring to.”
“You cannot play dumb with me,” Eurella said, waggling a finger at them.
Eutok squatted on his haunches, which was his preferred position when there
were no chairs around to support his muscular bulk. “Oh, no, Mother, our
ability to play dumb pales in comparison with your own skills at—”
With a low groan, Ulurac interrupted once more, gaining him a fairly nasty
look from his brother. “Mother, again must I respectfully ask for specifics as
to—”
“You want specifics? Very well. I shall give you specifics,” she said, rubbing
her hands together briskly and feeling most satisfied that she had kept the
two of them suf-
ficiently off balance. “The Piri.”
Yet again blank expressions were exchanged. “What about the Piri?” Eutok
asked cautiously.
“Did you think I would not hear?”
“You heard the Piri?” Ulurac asked, totally lost. “How c o u l d y o u... t
h e y a r e n o w h e r e n e a r h e r e... a r e t h e y ? ”
Immediately Eutok’s defensive instincts kicked in. “If they are,” he said
warily, “I’ll marshal the Trull lords at once. We will be fully armed and
ready to—”
“
Stop pretending!
I want to know which one of you was behind it!”
The clueless faces of her offspring were beginning to grate on her, and when
her demands only resulted in further protests of ignorance, Eurella began to
think she might have to accept said protests at face value . . . at least if
she had any desire for the conversation to proceed further.
She leaned forward on her throne, her gaze darting from one to the other,
looking for the slightest sign of dissembling
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
61

from either as she said, “The Piri have struck against the
Ocular.”
Eutok was the first to speak. “That is hardly a ground-
s h a t t e r i n g e v e n t , M o t h e r . H a v e t h e y n o t h i
s t o r i c a l l y...? ”
“This is a different matter. They burrowed.”
“Burrowed?”
“Yes, Ulurac, burrowed. Underground.”
“That would certainly be easier than burrowing above-
ground,” Eutok remarked, and received only an angry scowl in response. He took
a step back and stared at the tops of his feet with fixed interest.
“Merrih has been taken.”
“Merrih!” Ulurac looked genuinely upset at that.
“Nagel’s niece? I met her once! When the Ocular negoti-
ated with us for that supply of stone clubs we made for them. And that sword
Nagel ordered... ”
“I remember that sword,” said Eutok, and naturally he would. If there was one

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thing Eurella knew that Eutok had, it was an eye and fondness for weaponry.
“Craf ters worked o n i t f o r a m o n t h . T h e w a y i t g l e a
m e d i n t h e f o r g e fi r e s...
I’ve never seen the like.”
“Nagel inspires that in people,” Eurella said with grudg-
ing respect. “More than I ever did, damn him. He is wise and decent, and he
deserves better than to have his niece carried off by the Piri.”
“Then we will help him!” Eutok declared. “I will sum-
mon the lords, and—”
“N !”
o
Eurella snapped at him, seeing that Ulurac was about to respond to him and
interrupting before he could do so. “We maintain neutrality, Eutok! That is
our way! We sell to almost all sides and give none any advantage over an-
other. That way all continue to require our ser vices. That is best.”
“But Mother . . .”
“That is best!”
Eutok was growling deep in his throat, his fists clenched and trembling
slightly in repressed fury, but he managed to r e i n h i m s e l f i n...
a l b e i t b a r e l y . Meanwhile understanding
62
PETER DAVID

began to flare in Ulurac’s eyes. “You think,” he said slowly to the queen,
“that we provided burrowing equipment to the
Piri.”
“She doesn’t!” Eutok protested, but then he compre-
hended as well and stared at his mother. “You do?”
“The Piri creep about within their caves, like animals, the way that grizzes
roam the forests,” she said. “If grizzes, when they treed their prey, pulled
out axes from their furry asses and started chopping the trees down, you
wouldn’t think the grizzes suddenly developed weaponry. You’d know that some-
one gave them those axes.”
“And you think,” Ulurac said, slowly pacing back and forth while his gaze
never wavered from his mother, “that
Eutok or I might have given the Piri digging tech? Is that what you think?”
“I consider that a possibility, yes,” she replied stiffly.
“Well, don’t.”
Eurella tilted her head and studied Ulurac in a manner sim-
ilar to the way she would study a microbe. “You would tell the queen in such a
way what she can and cannot do?”
Ulurac did not back down. In a way, that pleased her. In another way, it
annoyed her. “I would tell the queen that to accuse either her Chancellor or
her Spiritu Sanctum of what is effectively high treason—especially without a
shred of proof—is wildly inappropriate. I would also tell our mother that to
think such of her sons is distressing, to say the least.”
“What makes you think I have not a shred of proof?” she challenged.
“Because,” Ulurac said calmly, “you cannot have proof of that which is not
true.”
Eutok snorted, a phlegmatic wheeze. “As if no one in his-
tory has ever condemned someone with falsified evidence.
You, brother, are to be admired for your continued naïveté.”
Ulurac pointedly turned his back and ignored him. “I do not believe you have
proof that any Trull—us or any other—has given digging equipment to the
Piri. As you say, they are merely animals. Parasites. They have nothing with
which to purchase anything from us in any event. No means
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
63

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of barter, no nothing. Digging technology belongs to the
Trulls alone. We know that. All know that. In order to vio-
late that rule, a huge incentive would have to be provided, and the Piri have
none to give. In every way, shape, and form . . . in every conceivable way...
t h i s i s n o t s o m e t h i n g that any Trull would do, much less the
two of us.”
“And why accuse the two of us, for that matter?” Eutok demanded. “When it
could be any member of our people?”
“It’s not!” Ulurac said sharply.
“But it could be, even though it’s not!”
“That makes no sense at all, you fool!”
Eutok pointed a trembling finger at Ulurac, remained that way for a brief
time, and then admitted, “All right . . . no. No, I suppose it didn’t make
sense. But still—”
Eurella put up her hands to quiet them both. “My belief that it could only be
one of the two of you was because you, in your duties, go much further afield
than any other Trull.
Only you would have reasonably had any interaction with the
Piri.”
“Even if that were the case,” demanded Ulurac, “why would either of us do
such a thing?”
“I don’t know.” She glowered at one and then the other. “I
was hoping you would tell me that.”
“Well, we didn’t. So we can just stop this foolishness right now,” said
Ulurac. “And frankly, Mother, considering how long it has been since the three
of us were together, it is tragic that this reunion could not have been
anything other than a series of baseless accusations.”
“Oh, of all the pompous... ”
Ulurac turned and walked away. Instantly Eurella was on her feet as she called
out, “You have not been given permis-
sion to depart!”
“I did not ask for it,” he replied, his voice icily calm.
The shock to Eurella was such that for a few moments she felt a numbing in her
face and she didn’t even dwell upon the ceaseless ringing in her ears. Mute,
she looked to
Eutok. He merely shrugged. “When you consider that our laws say that the
Spiritu Sanctum is allowed to come and go
64
PETER DAVID

as he pleases in the Underground, he’s really not doing any-
thing beyond asserting his rights. In fact,” he added, struck by the notion,
“as I recall, the same law exists for the Chan-
cellor as well. Good tremors to you, Mother,” and with that he tossed off a
vague salute and walked out of the room as well.
Eurella sagged back into her chair, grateful at first that no one had been
present to witness such disrespect and insub-
ordination.
And then, after long moments, as her mind pro cessed all that had just
transpired, she grudgingly realized that there was at least one thing to
appreciate about this minor uprising.
For the first time that she could recall, her sons weren’t fighting with
each other. They were actually in accord.
Dark gods take the Piri. Perhaps they had developed a few tunneling tricks on
their own. At least the things that re-
ally mattered—the mutual cooperation of her sons—was fi-
nally, after all these ages, coming into clearer focus. And if what it took
for that to transpire was for them to be united against a common enemy... h e

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r... t hen she would be sat-
isfied with that development.
iii.
Eutok emerged from the throne room and glanced around, wondering to where
Ulurac had gotten.
Suddenly Eutok was seized with the dizzying sensation that the far wall was
rushing toward him. It took him a sec-
ond or two to realize that a pair of firm hands had grabbed him from behind
and were, instead, shoving him forward at high speed.
He brought his hands up just in time, marginally cushion-
ing his slam against the wall. Nevertheless his body and face crashed up
against it, and his skull rang from the con-
cussive force of it.
Under ordinary circumstances, Eutok would have fought like a madman against
whoever was attacking him. In this
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
65

case, Eutok knew exactly who it was and what was going on.
So instead of taking an aggressive course of combat, Eutok did that which he
knew would be most annoying: He chuck-
led.
It had exactly the desired effect. “Shut up,” snarled Ulu-
rac, and, for good mea sure, shoved Eutok up against the wall a second time.
“What’s the matter, brother?” Eutok inquired silkily.
“That pacifist cloak you wrap yourself in beginning to itch?
Your true nature asserting itself again?”
Ulurac twisted Eutok around so that he was facing him, slamming his back
against the wall. “If I find out,” he snarled, right in Eutok’s face, “that
you had anything . . .
anything
. . . to do with this . . . with the Piri . . . I’ll . . .”
“You’ll what? Gut me? Like this?”
Ulurac had no clue of the jeopardy he was in until he felt the point of
Eutok’s knife jabbing ungently against his belly. He looked down and saw it
and grunted in ac know -
ledg ment of his vulnerability. Eutok’s distended brow was low and his dark
eyes were barely visible as he continued, with the hilt of his knife gripped
securely in his right hand, “General rule: When you’re threatening someone,
it’s al-
ways best to keep them facing away from you. Turn them around and they can
produce weapons out of the strangest hiding places.”
“Point . . . taken,” said Ulurac as he released Eutok and stepped back,
putting distance between the two of them. Eu-
tok smiled but did not put the knife away, instead twirling it between the
palms of both hands. The blade spun and glit-
tered wildly in the pale light of the nearby lanterns. “But you take my point
as well.”
“Why would I have truck with the Piri?” Eutok scoffed.
“They give us a bad name. The ’Draques and their ilk...
they lump us together as one. Even as they come to us for weapons, even as
they depend on us... t h e y t h i n k t h a t b e -
cause Trulls and Piri both shun the above, we are indistin-
guishable one from the other. That we’re the same as t h o s e... t hose
vermin. So why...? ”
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“I don’t know why, Eutok,” Ulurac admitted. “But I just want you to know that
if I find out . . .”
“Yes, yes, you’ve made your position abundantly clear.”
Eutok was not especially impressed. He tilted his head slightly on his thick
neck and inquired, “Did Mother get the idea from you? That we were involved
somehow? Were you spilling poisons in her ear?”
“Our beloved queen mother needs no poisonous sources outside of what she
herself can conjure,” said Ulurac.
Eutok nodded at that, but still continued to study his brother. “It has been a
long time, hasn’t it. You look well, Spiritu.”
“As do you, Chancellor.”
Showing his wide, dirty teeth, Eutok inquired, “Kill any-
one lately?”
With an angry snarl and a sweep of his cape, Ulurac stomped away on his large,
bare feet, leaving behind a snick-
ering Eutok, spinning his knife on one finger while wonder-
ing if—in taking the niece of the Ocular king—the Piri had not bitten off
more than even they could chew.
SUBTERROR
Merrih, for as far back as she could remember, had never had to do anything
that ran counter to her first impulse.
As the niece of Nagel, ruler of the Ocular, she had lived a life of plea sure
and privilege, and there had been nothing that she had ever wanted or desired
that had been denied her. If she saw something that intrigued her, some object
that struck her fancy, then all she had to do was request it and it would be
given her.
It didn’t matter how casual a comment it was. On one oc-
casion she had noticed a charming bauble, a pendant, hang-
ing about the neck of a young girl. She had commented on
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
67

the loveliness of it, and the girl’s mother had promptly snatched it from
around her daughter’s neck and presented it to Merrih, bowing and scraping the
entire time. The child had howled in protest, and Merrih had tried to demur
but the mother would not hear of it. Mortally embarrassed over the situation,
Merrih had eased matters by offering the girl a trade of a glittering ring she
was wearing. The captivated youngster’s tears had quickly dried and the swap
was made.
The swap had infuriated Nagel, considering that the ring was an heirloom and
worth easily twenty times what the pendant had been. But a deal was a deal,
and there was nothing for it but to live with it.
Nagel had told her to take that as a lesson to watch what she said. Merrih
instead had considered it further proof that she could pretty much do what
ever she wanted. Giving the girl the ring, really, had just been a sop to her
conscience. In-
stead of suppressing her desires and instincts, Merrih pre-
ferred to work on suppressing her conscience. She’d gotten fairly good at it,
too.
The moment she had been pulled under the ground, her first instinct had been
to scream and scream and keep on s c r e a m i n g... t o s c r e a m a n d
n o t s t op. To yield utterly and totally to the panic that had overwhelmed
her, the acidic fear that rose in her throat and that she could taste like
rot-
ting lemons.
At first she had screamed, gods above and below, how she had screamed. The
world she knew had been pulled rap-
idly and horrifically away from her, and she had felt things grabbing at her
ankles, dragging her down. Disoriented, she had understood within several

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heartbeats what was happen-
ing, and the level of danger that she was in. She’d heard the cries of her
people, heard Nagel yelling down after her, felt the stink of the underworld,
the disgusting moistness and mildew. Her back and legs had scraped viciously
against the walls, for they were dug wide enough to accommodate the
Piri but not quite wide enough for an Ocular.
All during the initial drag- down she had screamed, and then suddenly the
tunnel widened and she thudded down into
68
PETER DAVID

some sort of antechamber. There, in the utter, abysmal dark-
ness, her single eye widened even more than it had in the night above, and she
was able to see everything.
The walls were literally crawling with Piri, so many that it seemed as if
the wall was actually made of the vermin.
They skittered about, impossibly thin, their ribs and spines visible, their
deathly white skin a latticework of blue veins.
Their claws, from both their fingers and toes, cracked and crackled against
the walls. The antechamber was lined with some sort of rock, as opposed to the
thick, crusty dirt of the tunnels. Merrih couldn’t determine whether the
chamber had been carved right from rock or had somehow been lined with it to
provide additional support.
Most of them barely wore anything resembling clothing.
Mere tatters at best, and she suspected that they were items not made by the
Piri themselves, but instead were taken off the bodies of their victims. A
number of them were just naked, but were eyeing her in a way that made her
think they were planning to use her clothing as their next trophies.
Her impulse was to continue to scream, to cower, even to plead for her life.
To sob and cry about how much she just wanted to go home, return to the
surface, forget that this hideous nightmare had ever been thrust upon her. She
wanted to curse the name of Nagel as loudly as she could, for it had been he
and his foolish determination to fly in the face of fear that had resulted in
her being hauled bodily into this living hell.
As she stood there, frozen, arms outstretched in either di-
rection, she clamped her mouth tightly and—for the first time in her
recollection—fought back her impulses. Because she could tell from the
anticipatory gleam in their eyes, the way they licked their chops, the
snickering and muttered animal-
istic sounds between them, that protest was exactly what they were expecting
her to do. They probably wanted her to dis-
play fear. The dismay of their victims, the total loss of pride and the last
shreds of dignity . . . the creatures undoubtedly drew plea sure from all of
it.
She was very likely going to wind up providing them sus-
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
69

tenance, for they were many and she was but one, and she did not for a
moment believe that she could overwhelm them. She had even given up the notion
that she would ever be able to make it to the surface again. Her life was
over. All that mattered now was the way in which it was to end.
Some of the Piri looked at each other in confusion at her sudden silence. Then
they began to creep toward her. It was at that moment that Merrih let out a
roar.
It was a very different noise from the screams of panic she had made earlier.
The full- throated bellow of the Ocular, a battle cry of sheer defiance,
was something that creatures such as the Piri were not often faced with.

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They were craven beasts that cowered in the dark, grabbed small and
petrified victims, and devoured them. A bold Ocular who was not afraid to go
down fighting was something very different.
It wasn’t that Merrih was not afraid. She was. But she al-
lowed her anger and indignation to overcome it. Her chal-
lenge resounded through the antechamber, through the tunnels, down into the
darkest hidey- holes of the Piri. The ones around her mewled and grabbed
the sides of their nar-
row heads, covering their ears. Several of them fell off the wall, writhing
about. Without hesitation, still bellowing inarticulate defiance, Merrih
charged the ones that had fallen and brought her feet crashing down.
There was a loud crunching noise as her huge foot crushed the head of one of
them. She looked down and saw the goo and ooze seeping from beneath her foot.
At which point her resolve, her show of strength, com-
pletely evaporated. She felt her insides twisting and turning, and she tried
desperately to control it. She failed utterly and she vomited up everything
that was in her stomach. It blasted from her mouth, splattered everywhere, and
the Piri scam-
pered to get out of her way. She lurched, clutching at her stomach, and moaned
wretchedly, for this was certainly not the way she wanted to go. Not with the
smell of her own spew wafting up her nostrils.
That was when they came at her, and she didn’t care about anything else for
she had completely disgraced her-
70
PETER DAVID

self. All she could think was
Let it just end quickly, let it be done, let it
—
“Stop.”
She thought at first the voice was her own, coming out of her head, but then
realized that was obviously not the case.
Whoever it was that had spoken, it had been a female. The order had been made
with no sense of urgency, no thunder-
ing demand as a commander would shout at an army. The word had been spoken
calmly, almost conversationally.
Yet the Piri had halted. They were all looking off in the direction from
which the voice had come... t h a t d i r e c t i o n being several feet
behind Merrih.
Slowly, cautiously, Merrih turned in place like a tentative dancer. Her eyes
widened as she saw something that made no sense to her.
She was being eyed with mild amusement by a female who was taller than the
other Piri . . . perhaps half as tall as
Merrih herself. She was definitely Piri, but she was not like the others.
Whereas the other Piri, both male and female
(for she could see withered breasts hanging pathetically on the fronts of some
of them) had mere strings of hair hang-
ing randomly from their head, this one had long, lustrous hair that was as
pale white as the rest of her. It flowed ele-
gantly all around her. Her only clothing was long, fluttering pieces of cloth
that hung front and back from her waist, held in place by a glittering gold
belt that was studded with fine green jewels such as Merrih had never seen.
She ap-
peared to be naked from the waist up, but her hair was so thick that it fell
over her chest and provided cover for what-
ever breasts she might have had.
She wrinkled her nose slightly as the odor from Merrih’s spew reached her.
“Well well well,” she said with a scolding tone. “We’ve made a bit of a mess
here, haven’t we.”

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Unaccountably, Merrih’s first notion was to apologize for her action. Then she
realized that her foot was still atop the crushed skull of the Piri, and the
realization was almost enough to set off another wave of nausea.
The new arrival looked in the direction of Merrih’s foot
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
71

and said, “Oh my. Oh, oh my. Yes, a mess indeed. Come this way, please, my
dear,” and she clapped her hands briskly.
When Merrih didn’t move at first, the female prodded her with, “Yes, dear, I
was addressing you.”
Merrih was beginning to think that this was more than just a nightmare in the
sense that it was horrific. It might well have been a nightmare in the sense
that she was asleep and dreaming all of this insanity. Piri didn’t speak.
Every-
one knew they had no language beyond animalistic grunts a n d g r o w l s .
T h i s... t h i s P i r i w o m a n had to be some sort of dream
construct, a combination of Piri and Ocular that her mind had cooked up.
But . . . what sort of dream, even nightmare, included something as vivid as
smell of any kind, much less the smell of something as pungent as her own
sickness?
“I’m not accustomed to repeating myself, dear,” said the
Piri woman, and she extended one hand in a firm, command-
ing manner. Almost as an afterthought, she added, “Unless you wish to remain
here and be torn to shreds. I doubt that would be much fun for you, would it?”
“N-None at all,” Merrih admitted, and then mentally chided herself for the
lapse. There was no advantage at all to confessing to any sort of weakness,
even if that weakness was fear of—as the woman had said—being torn to
shreds.
Screwing her courage firmly down, she inquired in a pre-
emptory fashion, “Who are you? What is your name? Does your kind even have
names?”
“As much as your kind does. I would suggest,” she said, pointing to a large
stone positioned nearby, “that you wipe your foot on that. No need to track
such... unpleasant . . .
things along with you.”
Trying not to think about what she was doing, Merrih moved over to the rock
and dragged the sole of her foot across it repeatedly, trying to ignore the
thick, gelatinous bits of matter that were being removed from it. When she
was as satisfied as she was going to be, Merrih lowered her foot and then
turned back to face the female. The rest of the
72
PETER DAVID

Piri—thirty or forty of them, at least—continued to remain immobile.
“They obey you. You are their queen?”
“I am their leader. We here in Subterror don’t indulge in royal
appellations. That tends to be more the province of . . .” and she tilted her
head to indicate the surface world.
“ S u b t e r r o r...? ”
“That’s what we call our land.”
“ B u t y o u... y o u don’t have a land,” Merrih protested.
“ Y o u j u s t... y o u h i d e u n d e r g r o u n d a n d... y o u
’ r e p a r a -
sites. Animals.”
“All point of view, my dear. All point of view. Sunara.”
“ S u...? ”
“Sunara,” and the woman tapped her chest lightly. “That would be my name. You

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wished to know.”
“Oh. Yes. I did.”
“Sunara Redeye,” and she bowed majestically, waving her one hand as if to a
crowd of worshippers. Merrih heard sharp intakes of breath from the Piri all
around her. They seemed to respond to the mere mention of her name, in the way
that the truly devout trembled before the speaking of the name of a powerful
god. “Mistress Sunara is my hereditary reference. As I said, we disdain titles
. . . but we appreciate good lineage as well as the next ‘animalistic
parasites.’ That is what you just said your kind calls us, is it not? Animals?
Parasites?” The edges of her lips twitched in amusement as if she found the
notion amusing . . . but not amusing enough to garner laughter.
Sunara led the way out of the antechamber, pausing at the exit and gesturing
grandly that Merrih should precede her.
Merrih hesitated, suspecting a trap, but then realized the ab-
surdity of such a concern. Enemies surrounded her. She’d already been dragged
into the trap. She could make the most of her defense, make certain that even
more Piri paid with their lives, but ultimately they were many and she was
one. She had nothing to lose by following this “Mistress
Sunara” wherever she chose to lead, since matters could
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
73

hardly become any worse. At least, that was her theory.
There was always the chance that subsequent events would prove her tragically
overoptimistic.
“You have not shared, my dear,” said Sunara as she rounded the corner of one
tunnel. Oddly, even though she was a fraction of Merrih’s size, she seemed to
cover more ground than Merrih did, or at least with greater efficiency. It was
almost as if Sunara was floating across the ground rather than treading upon
it.
“Shared?” Merrih was keeping her eye fixed upon
Sunara, but her ears were attuned to noises behind her. She heard nothing,
however.
“Your name.” She sounded faintly scolding. “You know mine, but I do not know
yours. What do you call yourself, or what do others call you, if it ’t were
not the same thing.”
“Why would it not be the same thing?”
Sunara stopped and turned to face her, looking surprised that she would have
to ask. Her dark eyes seemed to glitter, which was odd considering there was
absolutely no source of light. “Because there are names, my dear, and then
there are names
. There are the names that you tell the world so that they are able to address
you in casual conversation.
And there are names, true names, names of power, that you keep buried deep in
here,” and she touched a long- fingered hand to her breast, “so no others
may have power over you.”
“Names have power?”
“They can. Whether one utters a name, or even uses a name, indicates the
significance of that name. Look at the planet we live on.”
“The Damned World?”
“Do you know its true name?”
Merrih frowned at that, stepping carefully over a stone outcropping, trying
not to bang up her legs. “Is that not its true name?”
“Who’s to know?” She shrugged. “My people tell the tale of the final battle of
the Third Wave. Supposedly when the last of the true Mort defenders tried to
hold his position against an overwhelming force, he stood upon a high moun-
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PETER DAVID

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tain and—as the Banished clambered toward him—raked them with weapons and
howled in their language, ‘Get off the damned world!’
And they took that to be the actual n a m e... w h i ch, when you think upon
it, makes as good a name as any.”
“I suppose.”
“But it may be that we never will fully rule this world un-
til we do know its true name... what ever that may be. Or perhaps,” and she
shrugged once more, “it is all merely su-
perstition, stuff and nonsense. Who could say? So... y o u r n a m e , m y
d e a r...? ”
She hesitated, quickly trying to decide whether she should fabricate a moniker
on the spot. But lying did not come readily to Merrih. As a daughter of
privilege, she’d never needed to develop a talent for it, since she was accus-
tomed to saying what ever she wanted and doing what ever she wanted without
fear of consequence. After the briefest of pauses, she said, “Merrih.”
“Merrih.” Sunara rolled the name over in her mouth as if she was tasting an
appetizer. She rolled the double “r” so that it almost sounded as if she
were purring it. “Your true name?”
“My name.”
“Do not concern yourself. If you have another, truer name buried within you,
it shall be revealed to me sooner or later.”
They had been heading steadily downward, not at a sharp incline, but a
noticeable one nevertheless. Several times during their journey, Merrih
considered the fact that she could try to attack Sunara at any moment. Try to
use her as a hostage, force the Piri to release her. But she kept coming back
to the folly of such an approach. Sunara was all that was keeping her alive.
Merrih had no idea where she was, here in the depths. If she just killed
Sunara, she’d never find her way out before the Piri found her and descended
upon her. True, there was an attraction to the prospect of fighting to the
death, but Merrih was still young and really didn’t want to have to die at
all. So she restrained herself even
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
75

as the pathway opened wider in front of them. Several times they arrived at
splits in the cavern tunnels, and the Piri mis-
tress made her way through with confidence. Merrih fol-
lowed as best she could.
“Tell me what you think of this.”
Sunara was just ahead of her, around a corner, and her voice echoed. Once more
Merrih tensed, concerned about some sort of . . . of something designed to
lure her in. She glanced behind herself. No Piri followed her. She could make
a run for it . . . but to what end?
Probably your own, she thought grimly, and walked around the corner.
She gasped at the sight before her.
This corridor, unlike others which had been narrow, twisting and turning,
stretched far into the distance. Fur-
thermore, there was some light. This was not moonlight, however. The rocks
themselves lining the walls seemed to be glowing.
It was not the rocks, though, nor even the distance spanned by the rocky
corridor that surprised her so. It was what was propped against the cave walls
on either side: a series of pic-
torial repre sen ta tions of creatures that she was reasonably sure were
Morts, although she had never actually seen one of them in person. The Morts
were wearing a variety of odd costumes, and the pre sen ta tions varied
wildly in style. She wasn’t discerning enough to be able to comprehend exactly
how they differed, but she knew instinctively diverse hands had produced them.
She had seen drawings, of course. Her people made their own pictorial

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renditions of themselves or others of the Ban-
ished on the Damned World. But they were inevitably simple renderings,
straight line etchings. Nothing this elaborate, filled with so many colors .
. . how was it even possible? How had the colors been applied?
Merrih leaned close to one and reached toward it. But her hand was brought up
short by Sunara, who was abruptly at her side and gripping her wrist gently
but firmly. “They do not do well with being touched,” she cautioned. “It
damages them.”
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PETER DAVID

“What . . .
are they?”
“They are called ‘paintings,’” Sunara told her. Certain that Merrih was going
to pay heed to her wishes, Sunara re-
leased her wrist and focused her attention on her trea sures.
She smiled and Merrih noticed the array of pointed teeth protruding from just
under her upper lip. Inwardly she shuddered. “It is rather an advanced art
form. None of the surface races practice it, although it is my understanding
that the Overseer has been known to dabble.”
“ T h e... ” M e r r i h fl i nched at the very mention of the name and
inadvertently glanced skyward. Her voice dropped to a whisper, as was typical
whenever anything having to do with the Overseer was brought up. “The
Overseer?”
“That is what I’ve heard.”
“How?” she demanded skeptically. “How could you have heard such a thing? How
would you know, you who . . . who crawl about down here while the Overseer .
. . he resides far o f f i n t h e S p i r e s ! H e i s a s f a r a b
o v e y o u a s... a s... ”
“Are these paintings not beautiful?” Sunara interrupted her.
Merrih tried to keep her focus on what she was saying, but wasn’t successful.
Instead she only nodded and admit-
ted, “They are... a m a z i n g . ”
“They are. You have a good eye . . . which is fortunate, what with only
possessing the one.” Sunara’s arms were draped behind her back. She was
walking silently across the floor, casually moving in a sideways manner by
drawing one long leg back behind the other and then stretching. If she’d done
it faster, to a beat, her movements were so graceful that she would have
been dancing. “I personally am particularly enamored of this one,” she said,
pausing in front of one. It was still in one piece, but the surface was
riddled with minute cracks. It was, Merrih saw, a simple portrait of a
Mort female clad mostly in dark colors. “Her little smile,”
continued Sunara. “Slightly imperious expression. Sallow skin. It would not
surprise me if she were one of us. A Piri.”
“What would a Mort be doing painting a Piri?” scoffed
Merrih.
“Creating this,” Sunara replied, and Merrih had to concede
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
77

the point. The picture—the “painting,” as she’d called it—
was an end to itself.
“All right, but . . . how did this come to—?”
“Be here?” When Merrih nodded, Sunara shook her head with an air of woe.
“The battles during the Third
Wave were brutal. The Twelve Races did not exactly . . .
how best to put it? Distinguish themselves... when it came to discernment.”
“I don’t understand.”

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“I mean that the Third Wave was so intent on taking the
Damned World... o f d r i v i n g t h e M o r t s i n t o t h e o b l i
v i o n that many felt they so richly deserved... t h a t t h e y p a i d
n o attention to what they were destroying, but instead simply annihilated
it because it was there, and because they could.
They saw Morts as animals. Perhaps even parasites, much in the way that we are
seen. That may well be one of the reasons that my people felt something of an
affinity for the
Morts. They were despised and underestimated. They were cast down from the
paradise that they once inhabited, much as we Piri were driven underground.”
“You weren’t driven here,” Merrih said. “Catacombs, c a v e s... t h a t
i s w h e r e t h e P i r i p r e f e r t o b e . ”
“Why, thank you ever so, my dear Ocular, for claiming to know the Piri mind
far better than I.”
“I . . . did not mean to... ”
But Sunara wasn’t waiting for her response. Instead she turned away and
continued down the corridor. “Sunara?”
Merrih called after her, but she kept going. Merrih was left alone in the
portrait- filled hall. She looked back the way she had come, but again could
see no point in essaying the dark-
ness on her own. Then she glanced left and right, making certain that she
wasn’t seen, and touched the painting of the woman with the odd smile.
A piece flecked off the canvas, from a section of the background. Merrih
gasped, convinced she had somehow broken the portrait, worried that the rest
of the pieces were going to follow suit and there would be nothing remaining
but a large blank space. As it turned out, she needn’t have
78
PETER DAVID

worried. The remainder of the painting stayed where it was supposed to. In
wonderment, Merrih studied the tiny piece in her hand. It was miraculous to
her. It was as if color itself—in this case, a sort of pale yellow—had
developed its own texture. To Merrih, it was no different than if she had
happened upon a rainbow and removed a bit of it to ex-
amine more closely. A piece of the ephemeral given sub-
s t a n c e... i t w a s a l m o s t i m possible to believe.
It made her wonder about the Morts, and even more, wonder about the Piri.
She heard splashing up ahead and padded after it. The ceiling was getting
lower. Walking space that more than ac-
commodated the Piri was problematic for an Ocular, and
Merrih was convinced she was soon going to have to bend herself in half in
order to proceed . . . and even that might not suffice.
She paused in front of an archway directly in front of her.
It might have started out as a natural formation, but studying it more
closely, she saw that carvings had been etched into the rock. She could
discern immediately that they repre-
sented various Piri, and there was an eerie, sinewy sexuality to them. The
carvings were all naked Piri, of both genders, intertwined one with the
other so that it was impossible to de-
termine where one began and another ended. The sculpture hewn from rock
started at one side of the arch and continued all the way across to the other
side in one unbroken array of exquisitely posed bodies. Was it supposed to be
a repre sen ta -
tion of sexuality? A mass grave? She couldn’t tell for sure, al-
though she was leaning more in the direction of the former than the latter.
The splashing continued and the air just ahead seemed warmer. Thus far the air
had been cold, and she had fancied she could feel it creeping into her bones,
into her joints. The tips of her fingers and toes were starting to numb.
Anything that might serve to warm her up would be a blessing.

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She stepped through the arch into a chamber that was huge beyond anything that
she had imagined.
Vast columns of solid stone went from floor to ceiling; it
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
79

was impossible for her to tell if they were of natural design or if they had
been carved and shaped. There was the steady flow of water nearby, some sort
of underground stream.
Merrih turned in Sunara’s direction and then looked away with an exclamation
of shock. That only lasted for a few moments, however, as, Merrih felt
compelled to look back once more at the Mistress of the Piri.
There was a pool of bubbling liquid some feet away, and
Sunara was standing there with several attendants, two male, two female. The
attendants, although obviously Piri, didn’t appear quite as emaciated as the
ones Merrih had seen earlier. None of them was as tall or robust as Sunara,
but they were clearly in a good deal better shape than their
“brethren.”
Sunara was stepping out of her sole garment, allowing it to drop to the rocky
floor where one of the women immediately picked it up and delicately set it
aside. Merrih’s gaze was drawn, in spite of herself, to the area of Sunara’s
femininity.
She had never seen anything like it. Sunara’s pubic region was devoid of any
sort of hair growth. Instead Merrih could see, even from where she was
standing, that the entire area of her pubic swell was viciously burned and
scarred, as if some-
one had taken a blazing torch and thrust it cruelly between
Sunara’s legs. Merrih tried to imagine the excruciating pain that Sunara had
undergone and could scarcely conceive it. It had obviously occurred some time
ago, since the scars had healed over. What Sunara must have endured during the
long, slow healing pro cess . . .
If Sunara was aware of the impact the sight of her nether regions was having
upon Merrih, she gave no indi-
cation of it. One of the male attendants was rubbing some sort of cream upon
the area. A salve perhaps. Maybe it pained her to this day. Sunara did not
seem to be feeling discomfort from the activity of the male attendant. Instead
her head was tilted back slightly, her breathing relaxed and steady, and she
was making a soft “cooing” noise that seemed to indicate she was finding the
tactile sensation pleas ur able.
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PETER DAVID

Sunara swept her hair back and away, and once more
Merrih was startled by what she saw. Sunara had no breasts.
Rather, she’d had them at one time, but in place of where they once had been,
there were more scars. There were two of them, twin scars running
horizontally across her chest, indicating that someone had expertly removed
her breasts via some type of surgical pro cess.
The warmth of the place was starting to pervade Merrih, relaxing her, enabling
her to shake the numbing cold from her limbs. She made no pretense of not
staring at Sunara’s body. Sunara noticed, as it would have been impossible not
to, and gestured for Merrih to sit. There were no chairs or couches or
cushions of any sort, so Merrih simply sank to the stony ground. It was warm
as well, and filled her with a sense of security in the disorienting, fearsome
environment.
She said nothing as Sunara eased herself into the liquid pool. Vapor wafted
upward. It might have been Merrih’s imagination, but it seemed to her as if
the pool bubbled even more zealously once Sunara’s body was immersed.

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One of the male and one of the female attendants slid into the pool on the
opposite side and approached her with sponges. The female gently swathed
Sunara’s upper body with the sponges. The male took a breath and then sank un-
der the water. Sunara repositioned herself and Merrih could tell that Sunara
was spreading her legs to accommodate the ministrations of the now- unseen
male. A faint smile spread across her lips. Merrih was feeling extremely
uneasy, as if she was witnessing something far more intimate than she should
be allowed to see. At the same time, the general warmth and security suffusing
her helped to allay what ever nagging sense of embarrassment and discomfort
she might be feeling.
“What happened to you...? ” M e r r i h a s k e d a t l a s t . I t
sounded to her own ears as if her voice was coming from very, very far away.
She didn’t dwell upon it, though, for her interests lay elsewhere.
“Happened?” Sunara appeared not to know what Merrih was referring to.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
81

“Your b—” It required long moments and several tries to get the word out.
“Your body. You have... t h e s c a r s , a n d t h e... ”
“Oh. That.”
Merrih couldn’t tell if Sunara was pretending to have no idea what Merrih
was referring to, or if Sunara was just adopting a “seen it all” tone that
made her sound removed and above concerns over such petty matters as
mutilation.
Sunara’s fingers strayed over the soft white scars that marked where her
breasts had once been. “That was a very long time ago... a n d i t w a s
necessary.”
“Necessary? Why?”
She leaned back and allowed her long hair to sink under the water. The male
attendant came up for air, or perhaps was just thrown off by the sudden
repositioning of her body.
After a moment he took another gulp and submerged once more. “Because it is
the honored responsibility of the Mis-
tress to serve the needs of all Piri, male and female. So it is tradition
that, once a Mistress—or a Master, if such there be—reaches a certain age,
and has already produced an h e i r , a l l o u t w a r d s i g n o f g e
n d e r b e... h o w d o I p u t t h i s ? ”
“Butchered?”
“Made obsolete,” Sunara said. “That way no preferential treatment may be
given, and the Mistress will serve as the living symbol of all Piri. What
gives us uniformity of spirit, after all, is this,” and she tapped her head,
“and this,” and she touched the area of her heart. “Gender can, and often
does, lead to divisiveness. We can only be strong if we are united. I, as
Mistress, represent that.”
“ B u t t h a t ’ s... I m e a n... d i d n ’ t i t h u r t...? ”
“I don’t think ‘hurt’ is the word I would use.”
“What then?”
She stared at Merrih, her eyes luminous and bright with remembered pain.
“There are no words for it. There are no words to encapsulate what it’s like
knowing that most of who you are is being... t a k e n f r o m y o u f o r
e v e r . T h e p a i n and the fear . . . fear of knowing only who you have
been all
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PETER DAVID

this time, and having no clue what it is you’re going to wind up as. No, my
dear . . . no words at all. But,” and her face softened, “I endured. It was my
responsibility, and I ful-

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filled it, as have those before me.”
“ A n d y o u r m a t e ? H o w d i d h e...? ”
“He was... n o t a f a c t o r . ”
“Why?”
“He was not,” she said, her voice carefully modulated and controlled. “And
that is all I wish to speak of in that regard.” She raised her hands, cupping
them, sipping the liquid that she had gathered between them, and then al-
lowed it to trickle through her fingers. Something about the water did not
look right. It appeared slightly rusty in color. That was when a chill thought
breezed through Mer-
rih’s mind.
“ A r e y o u...? ” H e r v o i c e c a u g h t , e v e n a s t h e w
a rmth continued to spread through her. “Are you... b a t h i n g i n... i n
b l ood?”
Sunara’s response was to laugh in a way that sounded al-
most musical to Merrih’s ears. “Oh, my dear, how you do go on so. Bathe in
blood? Something so vital, so difficult to come by at times... h o w e
xcessively self- indulgent would such an act be? No, no,” and she stirred
the water lazily with one finger, “it comes in this manner out of what ever
under-
ground fissures are its source. Oh, we have some minerals, some plants we add
in. It helps to revitalize and refresh.
Cleanses the body inside and out.”
By this point the male attendant had emerged once more and floated back and
away, remaining in position should his mistress have any desires. The female
attendant was scrub-
bing Sunara’s back.
The scent from the water was everywhere to Merrih. She could not remember when
she had ever been so relaxed.
She realized that there was a silly smile upon her face, and her single eye
was beginning to lose focus. But she only thought of these things in an “Oh by
the way” manner rather than feeling any alarm from it.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
83

“Do you have a desire to join me here?” Sunara’s voice floated to her.
She thought about it . . . about what it would be like to have the water
caressing her bare skin. Thought about the plea sure of seeing Sunara seated
across from her, smiling at her, perhaps reaching through the water and
touching her in a w a y t h a t w o u l d b r i n g h e r j o y... a j
o y t h a t she had, in all her years, yet to experience.
But she remained where she was... n o t o u t o f a r e l u c -
tance to move to the pool and join Sunara, but rather from an inability to
rise from where she was. In the entirety of her existence, she’d never been as
comfortable as she was just then.
There was some small part of her mind that was crying a warning to her,
telling her that she should not be lying im-
mobile and content. It was a faint buzzing in her brain, threatening to
distract her from her newly relaxed state of mind. She paid it no heed.
“Nooo,” she sighed. “I believe I’ll be fine... r i g h t h e r e . ”
“Suit yourself.” The voice of the Mistress had become even more mellifluous,
golden honeyed tones that teased
Merrih into giggling inwardly.
Merrih almost wanted to weep thanks to this feeling, for she had never felt
this way before, and she mourned the stretch of her life when she hadn’t known
such plea sure, such relaxation. She began to view her existence as a long,
barely endurable tragedy, that it had been absent sensations such as this.
The fear that she had felt, the anger, the resentment when she had first been
pulled beneath the ground into Subter-

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ror . . . it all seemed as if had happened to someone else.
Some poor, pathetic individual who could not possibly have dreamt, in her
wildest imaginings, of all that she was miss-
ing in her life.
“How can we be these feckless animals of which you speak?” the Mistress
inquired. There were fingers, loving fingers, running the length of Merrih’s
body now, pressing
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her flesh ever so gently, working their way under her gar-
ments. She loved it, wanted more, couldn’t wait. “You see our love of art .
. . our love of the sensual . . . is that the mind- set of animals? Is it?”
“No,” whispered Merrih.
“I didn’t quite hear that . . .”
“No,” slightly louder this time.
“We have been misjudged, my dear Merrih. Misjudged by the Banished. Misjudged
by you. There is so much more to us than any of them can and will believe. But
you will come to understand us. Won’t you?”
Sunara’s voice prodded and poked at all Merrih’s inner-
most secret places in her psyche, penetrating with ruthless and yet delicate
efficiency. “Won’t you?” she inquired again, and Merrih could no longer tell
if the voice was coming from within her or outside of her. Nor did it matter.
In, out, they were one and the same.
“Yes. Yes, I . . . will understand,” Merrih said, and that small warning voice
in her was finally silenced against the flow of warmth and love and intimacy
that flooded through
Merrih.
She sensed something moving against her then. Her eye was closed, but she
opened it lazily and saw a Piri rubbing himself against her body. And there
was another licking her bare leg, and still another, and they were moving
slowly in on her from all sides. They were smiling. She smiled back.
“You poor Ocular,” Sunara said in a voice laced with sympathy. “Each of you,
living alone, trapped within your own body. No sharing. No connection. Oh, you
may meld your bodies from time to time for brief intervals . . . but you have
no true bond. You are not genuinely family, one mind, one spirit. But that is
going to change for you, my sweet, oh yes indeed. You will have a family. You
will have us. We will provide you with what you have been missing... a n d
you will do the same for us. All will win. All will benefit.
All will be happy.”
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85

“Oh yes,” sighed Merrih, who had never realized how desperately unhappy a
creature she was until just this mo-
ment. “Yes, I would so like that.”
The Piri, writhing, enveloped her, their teeth sinking into her, and she
brought her arms around and embraced her new family of lovers.
THE OUTER PLAINS OF MARSAY
i.
Jepp, the wayward plea sure slave of the late Mandraque she called “the
Greatness,” followed at a respectful distance behind the creature “Karsen” who
had saved her from all manner of things that she could not imagine...
Actually, she could imagine them. She, as well as anyone and better than most,
knew full well the atrocities that Man-
draques could inflict upon slaves of any race, much less a race as irrelevant
as humans. She had witnessed them, seated or crouched at the Greatness’s side
while he had ban-

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tered or partied or plotted or otherwise been engaged with other Mandraques,
oblivious of her presence except at those times he had need of her ser vices.
She had watched others of her kind, or of similar status to her, brutalized in
the most creative ways that the Mandraques could conceive. All that time, she
had been unable to do anything other than sit there and watch it, or wince and
turn away. She had been able to say nothing about it, for to whom was she to
speak? Other slaves or servants envied her her status, for the Greatness was
many harsh and terrible things, but he never abused her in the manner that
other Mandraques did with their posses-
sions. This was not out of any respect for her, or care as to her feelings,
but simply because she was his property, and the Greatness cared about his
property. He kept her in
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PETER DAVID

pristine functioning condition in the same way that he kept his sword in
pristine functioning condition. His sword was clean and polished and always by
his side should he need it, and so was Jepp. She accepted that and was
grateful for it.
And if it was no way to live, well, it was the only way she knew, and so she
adjusted.
However, she could not speak to the Greatness about her feelings over the way
she saw others of her kind treated, nor would he think for a moment that he
should do something about it. What others did with their property was their
busi-
ness, not his.
For that matter, she wasn’t entirely sure she had any feel-
ings on the subject. She understood on some basic level that she should be
more upset than she was about witnessing such brutalities. In some very vague,
distant way, she had wished that matters could be otherwise. She knew, though,
that was not to be. She was what she was, the others were what they were,
and the Mandraques...
Well, the Mandraques were dead, now, weren’t they.
Not all of them, certainly. There were still many Man-
draques walking and stalking the Damned World. Right here and now, however,
there were none. There were only
Jepp and Karsen and the equally odd creature that was ap-
parently his mother.
It was Karsen’s mother who was making the most noise now as they trudged
toward wherever it was they were all going. She was speaking in low tones,
which was seemingly an unusual habit for her, and one she was having a good
deal of difficulty maintaining. Her normal state was to be speaking very, very
loudly. That was clear even to Jepp, a female to whom most things were
obscure. The only reason
Zerena was making the slightest endeavor to keep her voice down was due to the
pleadings of Karsen.
“ Y o u w a n t t o h o n d l e w i t h t h i s... t h i ng?” Zerena
de-
manded loudly. “Then do so, be done with it, dump it and go on about your
business!” As she spoke, she cast fiery, ir-
ritated glances over her shoulder in Jepp’s direction, and then tried to make
a point of pretending that she wasn’t
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
87

looking at Jepp at all. It was a strange little game that Jepp couldn’t begin
to understand.
“She’s a she, Mother, not an it,” Karsen protested.

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“Please do not speak of her so.”
“You’re a fool,” Zerena assured him.
“That may be. But she’s spoils of war, Mother. The law says I found her, and I
can do what ever I wish with her. My wish is for her to stay with me.”
Zerena stopped in her path, turned, and faced him, and there was something
extremely unpleasant in her expres-
sion. “You seem to forget, Karsen, that that is not a decision you get to make
alone. You are not the head of our clan.
That would be me. Any final decision in regards to...
that
. . . is in my hands, not yours.”
Karsen flinched and looked back at Jepp. She had no idea what she should say
or do. If Karsen tossed her aside, as he could very easily do, then she didn’t
know what her next step would be. She couldn’t imagine anything other than
just standing right where she was and waiting for someone else to come along
and... w e l l , she didn’t like to think about what the next person coming
along would do. She was aware that she had been tremendously lucky insofar as
Karsen was concerned, and was certain that her luck wouldn’t hold out twice.
“Dispose of her now,” Zerena continued, unknowing and uncaring of what was
going through Jepp’s head, “or dis-
pose of her later, but not much later. We don’t need an extra mouth to feed.
As head of this clan, that is my final word.”
She waited for some response from him, and when none was forthcoming, she
started to walk away.
“Then I’ll form my own clan.”
Karsen looked as surprised at the words that had just come out of his mouth as
Zerena was. She halted once more, and Jepp could see the tensing of the
muscles in her back.
“Your own clan.”
Everything in Karsen’s face and attitude indicated that
88
PETER DAVID

he wanted to back down immediately. Yet he nodded with a definite vigor that
belied any hesitation or second thoughts.
“Your own clan
,” she said again.
He seemed to be gaining strength from her incredulity.
“Yes, my own clan, Mother.”
“Your own clan!”
As loud as she got, that was as soft as he got. “If you keep repeating it at
increasing volume, is that supposed to change my mind somehow?”
She looked like she wanted to laugh, but it choked in her throat, and suddenly
it wasn’t funny anymore. “You wouldn’t last ten turns,” she said. “No... m
a k e t h a t fi v e ! A n d who is going to take care of you? Defend you?
Her?” and she pointed at Jepp, barking that distinctive odd laugh of hers.
She continued her rant, this time directed at Jepp. “That’s how it would have
to be, you know! Because he’s useless when it comes to—”
Karsen’s face crimsoned, but before he could interrupt, Zerena advanced on
Jepp. “Don’t hurt her!” he cried out.
Zerena uttered an annoyed growl deep in her throat as if he was speaking
idiocy, and grabbed Jepp by the elbow.
Jepp gasped at the strength in her grip, and noticed the older
Laocoon’s thick, broken fingernails, and she thought Zer-
ena Foux was going to rip her arm off at the socket in anger.
Instead Zerena only pulled her a few feet and then, as if the marginally
increased distance between herself and her son somehow assured privacy, she
said, “There’s something you have to understand about Karsen. He gets
interested in things. Random things. Intensely interested. There’s no telling

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what’s going to be his next obsession. In this case, it happens to be you. And
he will be intrigued with you for what ever period of time you continue to
hold his fancy. At which time he will then get bored with you and in short or-
der probably won’t even remember your name... ” S h e paused and scowled. “Do
you have a name?”
“Yes. It’s... ”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
89

“Don’t tell me. I don’t actually care. There’s no point in remembering it
because you won’t be around all that long.
Furthermore, I meant it when I said that—if he truly main-
tains this daft notion of forming his own clan—
you
’ll be the one who has to protect him
.”
“You do realize I’m standing right here, Mother!” Karsen protested.
“I have no secrets from you, Karsen,” she replied. “I’m simply telling the
girl what she has to look forward to. Per-
haps she’s foolish enough to think you would afford her some sort of
protection, and I’m disabusing her of—”
“He did protect me! From two Mandraques.”
That piece of information clearly caught Zerena off guard. She looked back at
Jepp and for the first time there was genuine surprise on her face, rather
than simple hostil-
ity. “What? What do you mean...? Y o u m ean the two of you hid . . .?”
“No! I mean they... ” S h e s t opped and looked to Karsen for guidance. “Is
it acceptable to you that I speak of this?
I . . . I would not wish to overstep my bounds.”
“You have no bounds here,” Karsen said, sounding gen-
erous. Zerena briefly rolled her eyes in exasperation, but then returned her
expectant gaze to Jepp.
“All right. Well . . . there were two Mandraques. They had survived the
battle. They wished to make me their prize. And Karsen... h e f o u g h t t
h e m . K illed them.”
“He what? You what?” She gaped at Karsen. “Fought and killed? Since when? In
all you life, I never . . . you fought them? Killed them? Were they ill in
some way?”
“No.”
“Had limbs or even their heads chopped off, perhaps?”
“They were actually impressive specimens,” Jepp spoke up. “But Karsen
dispatched them most handily. He used the war hammer he now has on his back.
See? The blood of the
Mandraques is upon it still.”
Zerena let go Jepp’s arm as if she no longer mattered.
She strode to her son, gripped him by the shoulders, and then turned him
around. She stared at the war hammer, 90
PETER DAVID

apparently truly seeing it for the first time. Or perhaps, Jepp reasoned,
Zerena had just figured that Karsen had taken it as a souvenir or for its
resale value, without any intention of ever using it in combat.
The blood upon the hammerhead had nearly dried to a pale green. Zerena touched
it tentatively, and then raised her finger to her mouth. Her tongue darted
out, tasting it, as if she thought its presence on the weapon was merely a
trick and it was actually some type of condiment.
“You know, Mother,” Karsen said, leaning in sideways toward Zerena, who seemed
lost in thought, “she knew se-

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cret pouches and such that the Mandraques had upon them.
Helped me acquire some valuable trinkets. Very useful in that regard, I
should think.”
Zerena seemed in the pro cess of reassessing Jepp. Finally she shrugged,
feigning indifference. “Let the others have their say. Then we shall see what
we shall see. The camp is just ahead.” As a warning to Jepp, she added, “Don’t
expect us to walk slowly or wait for you to catch up. Keep up with us, don’t
keep up with us, it’s on your head, not mine.”
“Yes, milady.”
Upon hearing the title, Zerena made another loud noise that was probably
supposed to be some sort of laugh. Jepp couldn’t be sure. When she’d recovered
herself sufficiently, Zerena said, “Save the high- flown titles, human.
They mean nothing to us. The high- flown die just as readily as any Bot-
tom Feeders. The only thing makes them think they’re bet-
ter than we are those fancy titles, so apply them to those who take stock in
them and leave the rest of us the hell alone.
Understood?”
“Yes, mi—”
“Zerena. Just . . . Zerena, if you feel that you must ad-
dress me for some reason, and I’d rather you didn’t.”
She turned and strode away from Jepp, and Karsen sidled over to her with a
ready smile. “Well done.”
“Is it true?” she asked, as they began walking once more, and she could
immediately see that Karsen was indeed slow-
ing himself to allow her to remain near him. “What she said?
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
91

About that you become interested in things and then get bored and forget about
them?”
“I really can’t recall,” he said. She assumed at first that was supposed to
be a joke, but when he said nothing beyond that, she realized he was serious.
Rather than press the mat-
ter, she wisely decided to let it go.
They soon reached an incline. Zerena had gone ahead and Karsen was able to
navigate it with animal- like confi-
dence. For Jepp it was a bit more of an endeavor. She had to climb carefully,
and fell several times, skinning herself badly. But when Karsen reached back
to try and help her, she remembered Zerena’s words and—more importantly—
her attitude, and waved him off. Instead she gritted her teeth and even forced
herself to smile as if it were all some grand adventure.
She made it to the top of what turned out to be a plateau.
The Bottom Feeders had made camp there, and she could see why. The elevation
gave them a decent view of the sur-
roundings so that it would be difficult for anyone trying to surprise them.
Several tents dotted the plateau, and there was a small fire going in the
middle of the encampment.
What impressed Jepp, however, was the vehicle parked at the far end of the
plateau. It was large, very large, boxy, white, edged with windows, and it
possessed not wheels, as
Jepp had seen on most means of conveyance, but instead two long strips of
metal, with treads, running along either side. She guessed that they were
the means of locomotion, although she had trouble imagining exactly how they
func-
tioned. However they did it, they obviously did so with great efficiency,
because they had managed to propel the large vehicle up the side of the
plateau and onto this place.
It also seemed that something had spilled nearby the ve-
hicle. Jepp couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it ap-

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peared to be some sort of thick, viscous fluid, sitting in a puddle about two
feet across. She wondered what kind of stuff it was, and then worried that
perhaps it was some sort of strange Laocoon secretion or something like that.
92
PETER DAVID

Zerena was inspecting the fire to make sure it was in no danger of burning
out. Once she was satisfied, she turned to
Jepp and said, “Do you cook?”
“Food?”
“No, yourself,” she snapped back with no pretense of pa-
tience. “Throw yourself on the fire and let’s see how you taste.”
“Mother!” Karsen said in annoyance upon seeing the ob-
vious look of concern on Jepp’s face.
“No wonder your kind is mostly extinct,” Zerena said to
Jepp. “No sense of humor. At all.” She went into one tent and reemerged with a
small closed bag, and a knife. She threw them at Jepp’s feet. “Skin them, cook
them. We’re go-
ing to continue to forage. If any other members of our clan show up, feel free
to introduce yourself.”
“And what if more Mandraques show up?”
“I gave you a knife,” she smirked. “Kill them or, failing that, kill yourself.
It makes no difference to me.”
“Mother, I should stay with her . . .”
“You would have someone that helpless travel with us?”
Karsen began to offer further protest, but Jepp stopped him. She put a hand
gently on his shoulder and said, “Your mother is correct, Karsen. I should not
require constant pro-
tection. You do as you need. I shall be fine here.”
“You’re sure,” he said uncertainly.
She held up the knife and smiled gamely. “I’m armed.
What could go wrong?”
It took several more assurances, but eventually Karsen accompanied Zerena out
of the camp. He cast a few glances over his shoulder at Jepp before he moved
out of sight. She was surprised to discover that she missed him almost imme-
diately, not out of a desire to be protected, but simply be-
cause she liked him.
Jepp went to the bag and pulled it open. Her nose wrin-
kled against the immediate smell that emerged. She up-
ended it and the corpses of several small, furry creatures tumbled out of it.
She didn’t know what they were, but it
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
93

didn’t matter. Her job was to skin them and prepare them to be eaten, so what
ever names they might have borne were beside the point.
She set gamely to work. Jepp had not been lying about having some rudimentary
knowledge of cooking. But it didn’t extend to food preparation, and she
mangled the first small corpse rather badly before she got the fur off it in
jagged strips. She was, however, a fast learner, and so managed to get the
remaining creatures skinned with increasing skill and speed. At least the
knife was sharp, thus making the job a good deal easier.
Jepp could easily have just spitted the creatures and sat there, carefully
dangling their fleshy corpses over the flame.
She decided, however, to be a bit more ambitious. She went into the tent from
which the food had been fetched and found, among other utensils, a cooking
pan. Using the knife and a flat wooden board on which to balance it, she
meticu-

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lously peeled the flesh off the bones and then carved it up into small cubes.
This prompted her to smile with self-
satisfaction, and then she scraped them into the pan. Once this was
accomplished, she held the pan over the fire, flip-
ping the meat cubes with growing confidence so they would cook evenly.
“This is how you do it,” she said to herself. The aroma from the meat was
starting to carry, wafting on the wind in such a way that she hoped it would
prompt Foux mother and son to smell it and come running.
And as the meat continued to sizzle, cooking up nicely, Jepp became aware of
some type of motion nearby her, just noticed out the corner of her eye, nearby
the large treaded vehicle. She turned her head and let out a scream as the
massive gelatinous mass she’d noticed earlier was moving right toward her,
oozing with a life of its own, and she knew without any question that the
thing was alive and about to envelop her and swallow her whole.
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PETER DAVID

ii.
Mingo Minkopolis, a sack of swag hanging over his broad, hairy shoulder, was
making his way back to camp when sev-
eral aromas reached his nostrils all at once, intermingled one with the other.
Such was the sensitivity of his snout, however, that Mingo could sort out each
scent, determining the source and what precisely each smell signified.
It had not been easy for the aroma to get through the overall charnel smell of
burnt flesh that continued to drift in from the field of battle. Long had he
stood upon that field, surveying the remains of the folly that the Mandraques
had brought upon themselves in their obsessive need for self-
destruction. Mingo had known that there had been no way he himself could
possibly have prevented the mutual mas-
sacre. Yet such was his view of the world that he continued to carry guilt, in
perpetuity.
He would step gingerly between the corpses, his wide, bare feet moving with
surprising delicacy considering their size. His legs were bare, as were
his torso and arms. He wore tanned animal skins as a cloth around his loins.
All of his ex-
posed skin was a hardened, leathery brown, not easily pene-
trated by something as pedestrian as a blade.
Most impressive was his head. Many days he would sim-
ply sit with a brush or comb and comb out the fine, black shaggy hair—or
perhaps some would call it fur—that cov-
ered the entirety of his face and head. His eyes were small, black and
beady, set high and on either side of his head, and there was very little that
they missed. Just above them were his horns, one on either side. Each horn
was approximately a foot long, pointed and curved upward with an additional
little twist at the tip. When he was charging, he was capable of im-
paling a victim on his horns and then lifting the victim up high and tossing
him with a quick, efficient snap of his head.
Showers of blood would spray in every direction. On those occasions when
several opponents surrounded him, usually goring only one was required. The
rest would experience a
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
95

sudden dimunition of nerve and abruptly discover that there were other, far
more pressing matters that required their at-
tention.
Now, as the smell of rotting Mandraques occupied his senses and his attention,
something else was fighting for them as well. Something that was most

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definitely coming from the direction of the camp, and that naturally gave it
far more priority. Fortunately he was downwind of it, so the passing breezes
were making his life remarkably easy. He took a great whiff, his nostrils
flaring to almost twice their normal size.
First and foremost was a scent that he had not detected in quite a long, long
while. Fortunately he never forgot a smell once he had encountered it, and so
Mingo knew without hesitation that he was scenting a human. A female human, if
h e w a s n o t m i s t a k e n... a n d , o b v i o u s l y , a m a l
e h u m a n i f h e was mistaken, but he didn’t believe that was the case.
He also detected the smell of food cooking. Definitely the food that he,
Mingo, had caught and killed for them.
Mingo preferred his food raw. There was nothing like the animal flesh being
torn to shreds by his teeth, the blood of the kill seeping down his throat.
But he knew that most oth-
ers opted for burning the flesh over flame and thus killing the true taste
altogether. He did not understand it, and was even appalled by it, but had
learned to tolerate it. So the hu-
man woman was cooking the food. Perhaps she had wan-
dered into the camp and was trying to steal their supplies.
The bristles on the back of his neck stood up to reflect his irritation over
her effrontery.
He headed back toward the camp with great, loping strides. Karsen was fast, no
question, but Mingo was swifter, and as he drew closer to the camp at high
speed, he imagined the retribution he would inflict upon this upstart human,
whoever she was, for daring to lay her fingers upon their supplies. Supplies
that he, Mingo, had caught with his own two hands.
Just before he got to the plateau, he detected another smell that was hardly
an olfactory challenge because it was
96
PETER DAVID

supplemented by an audible cue. The smell was fear. Some-
thing had terrified the woman. The change in her bodily fra-
grance was palpable. However he didn’t require his nose to tell him that,
because the woman’s outcries more than did the job.
Mingo barreled up the plateau, covering the last ten feet with a single,
prodigious vault, and landed on the plateau’s edge with a thud that actually
caused the ground to shake.
The female’s back was to him, and she was too terrified of what she was seeing
to notice his arrival.
A thick, gelatinous mass was looming in front of her.
There were small flecks of purple throughout it, and it stood about a head
higher than the woman, “looking” down at her even though it possessed no
features that he could discern.
Its viscous body was pulsing, although, again, there were no visible
internal organs that would have explained what was causing the pulsation.
The woman tried to back up. In doing so, she tripped over a rock and her feet
went out from under her. She hit the ground hard, knocking the breath out of
her. The mass moved closer and actually grew taller (albeit narrower), and its
top leaned down toward her as if trying to decide whether to envelop her.
She curled up into a ball, her arms wrapped around her head. It was the single
most pathetic thing that Mingo had ever seen, and that was saying something.
The campfire was between the mass and the girl, and it simply oozed around the
fire, steering clear of it.
It was at that moment that a defiant roar sounded through the camp. The girl
looked up just in time to see an aged
Mandraque charge into the camp from the other side of the plateau. He was
huffing and puffing mightily, the scales around his face tinged with white,
his eyes a blazing red.

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His torso was festooned with ribbons and decorations, and he was gripping a
sword in his left paw with such ferocity that one might have thought him
prepared to do battle with death itself.
“Keep back, creature!”
bellowed the Mandraque in a voice
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
97

that was quavering but still had iron strength to it. It was un-
clear to Mingo exactly to whom the Mandraque was address-
ing himself. His subsequent actions clarified it as he roughly pushed the
woman back so that he could come between her and the gelatinous mass. The mass
remained where it was, tilting its non ex is tent head slightly, apparently
curious about this new development. The Mandraque held his sword up and cried
out, “You shall not have her, what ever you are!” When he spoke, it was with
a deep, vibrant voice that was a marked contrast with his unimposing physical
presence. It summa-
rized the Mandraque, really: inwardly youthful and aggres-
s i v e , o u t w a r d l y... n o t q u i t e a s m uch.
Mingo moaned softly and then called out, “Kestor! Rafe
Kestor! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The Mandraque called Rafe Kestor froze and looked in
Mingo’s direction. When the woman saw Mingo, she gasped, her hand fluttering
to her mouth, her eyes widened in . . .
what? Shock? Fear? Mingo strode toward Rafe and repeated, “I said what the
hell do you think you’re doing?”
“ T h i s... t h i s y o ung woman,” Rafe Kestor stammered in-
dignantly, “she was being threatened by... b y... ”
“Think hard now,” Mingo said, not unkindly. “Cogitate.
Peruse as thoroughly as you desire the blue matter that comprises your brain.
It will come to you. I can see it even n o w , d r a w i n g c l o s e r...
c l o s e r... a n y m o m e n t n o w... ”
“Gant.”
“Ah, and the light dawns,” sighed Mingo.
And the gelatinous mass, shimmering in a totally differ-
ent manner, rumbled in a deep vibrato, “Idiot.”
The word, emerging so unexpectedly from something so bizarre to her, caused
the human woman to let out a startled yelp. The mass, apparently having lost
interest in her, seeped away from her, undulating across the plateau and
settling back to where it had been earlier. The woman was gasping for air,
totally bewildered as to what she should say or do next. The Mandraque, Rafe
Kestor, had gone from acting as her valiant savior to regarding her with overt
suspicion.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “What are you?” He pointed
98
PETER DAVID

the sword in the general direction of her throat and contin-
ued, “Answer me quickly, creature! What happened to your scales? Your feathers
or fur? Well? Speak up!”
“Rafe,” sighed Mingo, touching the old Mandraque’s sword arm and pushing it
gently down. “Can’t you see the brainless thing is terrified?”
“I . . . I’m not brainless!” the woman said. “And I’m not a... a t h i n g !
That’s a thing!” She pointed at the mass.
“Suck yourself,” the mass responded.
“Don’t call him a thing. He’s very sensitive about that,”
Mingo scolded her.
“And I’m not supposed to be sensitive?”

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“There’s a difference.”
“What’s the difference?”
“I don’t care about your feelings.”
“Oh.” She considered that and then, to Mingo’s surprise, seemed almost to
deflate. “Well . . . yes, all right. I see how that makes sense. I am . . .”
She bobbed her head deferen-
tially. “I am sorry if I . . . if I spoke out of turn.”
“We don’t generally take turns speaking around here,”
said Mingo. “What ever occurs to us, we simply blurt right out, and let the
words fall as they may and where they will.”
He walked around her slowly, studying her thoughtfully.
Then he glanced at the saucepan on the fire. “I’m hardly an expert in these
matters, but I think you’re burning that.”
“Oh!” she cried out, grabbed up a cloth, wrapped it around the handle of the
skillet and pulled it from the fire.
“Thank you. You are too kind.”
“I’m really not.” He hunkered down and she, who was sitting, skittered back
slightly, keeping a distance from him, eyeing him with concern. “You’re a
human, yes? A female, judging by the... ” a n d h e g e s t u r e d t o w
a r d h e r b r e a s t s , “. . . accouterments.”
“Yes. I . . . am Jepp.”
“I don’t recall asking you your name,” Mingo said.
“I’m sorry, milord,” she replied, lowering her head in shame.
He stared at her, biting back amusement over being
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
99

addressed with such a lofty title. “All right, well . . .
J e p p... what are you doing here?”
“Cooking. Food.”
“Is she in some sort of danger?” Rafe Kestor suddenly asked. He was seated on
a boulder nearby and had been ab-
sorbed in using his sword to scratch his back when some-
thing called him back into the moment. “I seem to recall she was.”
She glanced at Rafe Kestor and then looked at Mingo with uncertainty. “Is
there something... w r ong with him?”
“Nothing that death won’t cure, sooner or later . . .
sooner, ideally,” Mingo muttered, although he looked sym-
pathetically in Rafe Kestor’s direction.
“And that . . . thing? It talked
?” She couldn’t understand, and there really was no reason that she should.
“I . . . do not pretend to great thinking, milord, but I have some small
knowledge of every race on the Damned World, even those
I’ve never seen with mine own eyes, and he... i t... i s i t a h e o
r...? ”
“It is a ‘he,’ his name is Gant, and his situation is really none of your
concern,” Mingo told her.
“Thanks,” Gant spoke up. His voice sounded much lower, now that he was spread
thinner across the ground. “I
appreciate... t h e n o t i c e , ” h e added, his tone thick with sar-
casm.
Jepp looked to him expectantly, and Mingo was helpless, caught up in the
throes of being courteous in social situations where courtesy was called for.
“And I am Mingo Minkopolis.
I am a—”
“Minosaur, yes,” Jepp said, openly interested, but then she quickly lowered
her eyes as if feeling she’d overstepped herself. “My apologies. I did not
mean to—”
“Don’t worry about it,” he assured her.

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“But I do worry. I don’t wish to offend.”
“You’re not offending!” Mingo said with mounting exas-
peration. Originally he’d been angry at her, seeing her as a trespasser. Now
he had no further idea who she truly was or what the hell she was doing
here, and his anger was coming
100
PETER DAVID

from a totally different source. “You’re not offending.
Y o u ’ r e s i m p l y... I... ”
“You’re annoying, is what you are.”
Mingo let out a sigh of relief as Zerena trudged up onto the plateau. It was
she who had spoken, and she had several more items of armor and knickknacks
slung around her shoulders. She dumped them to the ground and glowered at
Jepp. “I see you’re making everyone’s acquaintance. Has anyone tried to kill
you yet?”
“I . . . am not sure,” she said, casting a ner vous glance in
Gant’s direction. For his part, Gant percolated slightly but otherwise ignored
her.
“Zerena, do you know this... J epp individual?” inquired
Mingo.
“It’s part of Karsen’s salvage. He wants it to stay with us.
What do the rest of you think?”
“Really.” Mingo studied her thoughtfully. “You know, I’m not sure. Can’t say
I’ve ever had a pet before. Does it have any useful skills?” When Zerena
shrugged, Mingo urged Jepp, “Well? Do you have any useful skills?”
“ I w a s... a m...
was, ” she said, unsure of which tense to speak in, “a plea sure slave.”
“Really.”
“Yes. For the Greatness,” added Jepp with the slightest touch of pride.
“What greatness?”
“
The
Greatness. You know,” she prompted. “The Great-
ness. All know the Greatness.”
“Is he a Mandraque?” Mingo surmised.
“Yes.”
“Where is he now?”
“He is... dead.”
“Not so great then, was he.”
Suddenly a hand cuffed Mingo on the back of the head. It was a resounding
thwack, rattling Mingo’s brain around. He snarled and his head whipped around
to see Rafe Kestor standing there, and the clouds that were normally visible
behind his eyes were gone.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
101

“You will not speak so of the Greatness,” Rafe Kestor warned him.
“ Y o u... ” M i ngo held the back of his head, trying to get the ringing to
stop. “You stupid—!”
“You will not speak so of the Greatness!”
To Mingo’s utter shock, Kestor went for his sword, and Mingo was on his feet,
poised, snarling, little flecks of foam flying from his mouth, Jepp all but
forgotten. “She served the Greatness? I taught the
Greatness! I taught him before he was the Greatness!
I made him Great!
So you will speak of him with respect, or the gods as my witness, I will
render your neck lonesome for your head! Do you understand me, Mingo! Do

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you?!” Mingo stared at him, wide- eyed, astonished at the outburst, and
Rafe
Kestor waved the sword even closer to his face and repeated, “Do you?” Mingo
managed a nod, but that was insufficient for Rafe Kestor. “Say you
understand! Say it aloud! I want to hear it!”
“I . . . understand,” Mingo said.
Rafe Kestor glowered at him for a moment, and then sheathed his sword. Slowly
he turned to Jepp and his tone changed completely. He sounded gentle, even
avuncular, as he asked, “The Greatness. How is he?”
The human girl, Jepp, was clearly bewildered. She had said only moments before
that this “Greatness” that Rafe
Kestor was so worked up over was dead. But she was not ac-
customed to the in- and- out of Kestor’s brain as the others w e r e . “
W h y... w h y h e i s... ”
Zerena cleared her throat loudly, catching Jepp’s atten-
tion. She looked to Zerena and, ever so slightly, Zerena shook her head. Mingo
knew instantly what Zerena was try-
ing to convey, and could only pray that the human’s no doubt boundless
stupidity would nevertheless allow her to comprehend.
Without missing a beat, Jepp—her eyes remaining fixed on Zerena—said, “He
is... w e l l . Q u i t e w e l l . H e i s...
well, of course, he is the Greatness, so naturally how else could he be?”
Kestor took a step toward her, stretching his head forward
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PETER DAVID

on his thick neck, tilting his head with open curiosity.
“Does he... ” H i s v o i c e w a v e r e d s l i g h t l y . “Does he
ever ask after me?”
This time Jepp did not need any cues from Zerena. Un-
hesitatingly, she said, “Of course! All the time! Why, just the other day, he
was saying, ‘You know... i t has been ages since I have seen my old mentor,
Raff Kestral . . .”
“Rafe Kestor,” Mingo breathed.
“Rafe Kestor,” Jepp immediately corrected herself. Rafe
Kestor didn’t seem to notice the flub, even though—
paradoxically—he was hanging on her every word. “Yes, m y o l d m e n t o r
, R a f e K e s t o r , t h e... b r a v e s t a n d w i s e s t a n
d... ” Z e r ena mouthed some words and Jepp promptly added, “...g r e a t e
s t w o r r i e r — ”
“
Warrior, you pale idiot!”
“Greatest warrior in the history of the Mandraques,” Jepp finished all in a
rush. She appeared as if she were about to add something else, but then
thought better of it and simply waited for Rafe Kestor to say something in
response.
“I should,” Rafe Kestor finally announced, “stop by sometime, when we are next
in the area.” Absently he pat-
ted Jepp on the head, and then strolled away, his tail swish-
ing behind him, to take up a conversation with Gant. Gant, in turn, paid him
no mind at all, which didn’t bother Rafe
Kestor as he waxed nostalgic for the old days in the court of the Mandraques.
Zerena stepped in close to Jepp and Mingo heard her say, “Well, you almost
made a complete muddle of that.”
“My apologies, I should never have—”
“Oh, shut up,” snapped Zerena, and then she sighed heav-
ily as Rafe Kestor chattered away to Gant . . . who might well have been
asleep for all Mingo knew. “You did well enough, I suppose. As much as was
required, all things con-

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sidered.”
“Thank you, mil—” She caught herself and amended, “Zerena.”
Zerena shook her head, her gaze still upon Rafe Kestor.
“Believe it or not, he was once all that you said in your
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103

nattering just now. He was the bravest, the best. But time ravages us all,
each in our own way.”
“As you say, Zerena.”
With faint disgust, Zerena looked back at Jepp. For a long moment nothing was
said, and Mingo wondered what could be passing through Zerena’s mind.
Finally she said, “A plea sure slave, eh?”
Jepp nodded.
“Are you good at your vocation?”
“Are you asking for a demonstration, Zerena?” Jepp asked neutrally. Mingo
couldn’t begin to guess whether the notion was attractive to Jepp or not, or
even if it made any difference to her.
“No, I’m not asking for a demonstration! I’m just asking... I m ean, answer
the damned question!”
“I am . . .” Jepp shrugged. “I am told I am satisfactory.
Most satisfactory, in fact. I know many pleasuring techniques for the
different races, since no two are precisely the same.”
“You’re conversant with what pleasures Minosaurs?”
Mingo asked.
But the words were barely out of his mouth before Zerena said sharply, “You
just get that right out of your head, Mingo, you understand me?”
“I was simply inquiring. I was curious from a...
research and societal point of view.”
“I’ll bet you were,” snorted Zerena. She turned toward
Jepp. “And you... ”
“Me?”
Zerena’s gaze could be quite withering, and Mingo felt some grudging
admiration for Jepp that she didn’t appear taken aback by it. Instead she
simply stared at Zerena and waited for her to speak. Zerena finally did,
saying, “You bring plea sure to males.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any idea of the power that gives you?”
Jepp appeared to be pro cessing Zerena’s words in her mind, but what ever it
was she was thinking, it didn’t seem to amount to anything. “Power?” she asked
finally.
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PETER DAVID

“Yes! Understand you nothing? Females have come to power in many ways. As a
human female, you naturally could not, would not, rule in any capacity. But if
you are in-
deed skilled, then you could use this talent to gain yourself a position of
influence. Of wealth. A crafty female who is beloved of males can chart her
own path. You, however . . .
you don’t seem to realize that. You bow, you scrape, you try not to offend.
What ever it is you do with your hands, there is power in them. And you are a
fool for not having used that power to control your own destiny. Just a
godsdamned fool.”
“ S u c h... aggression as you suggest, Zerena, is not part of the life that
I, as a slave, was born and raised into,” Jepp said. Yet again she did not
sound at all angry, but merely matter- of- fact. Perhaps even a bit
embarrassed for Zerena that something so self- evident to Jepp required

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explanation.
“I am what I am. It has never occurred to me to aspire beyond my station.”
“Never?”
“Is that so unusual?”
“Why would you not aspire to be greater than you are?”
“Zerena,” and her eyebrows knit into curiosity. “You are a Bottom Feeder. From
my understanding, the Twelve
Races have lower regard for your social status than they do for anyone else
on the Damned World. Why do you not as-
pire to be higher in rank than you are now?”
“Because I am carry ing on the grand tradition of my clan and my forebears,”
Zerena snapped back with a good deal more heat than she’d intended. She heard
a soft chuckle from Mingo, who had thought the point well taken and worth a
laugh. She glowered at him.
“And I am continuing in the ‘grand tradition’ of my kind,” said Jepp ruefully.
“A tradition that was foisted upon us by you and your ilk.”
“My ilk? My ilk did nothing to you.”
“So you say.”
“That’s right, so I say, and how dare you have the temer-
ity to—”
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105

Mingo felt that there would be no better time to step in than right then.
“Zerena,” he noted, “first you castigate the girl for lack of character . . .
and now you would chastise her when she first displays the sort of
assertiveness you claim to value. Or do you only value it in yourself?”
Zerena was about to snap out an answer, and then clearly realized there was no
easy response to that. Of course, Mingo silently reasoned, she could always go
for something vulgar and obvious.
“Well?” he prodded. “Are you going to answer the que—”
“Shut up, half- man,” Zerena snarled at him.
“Yes, I rather thought you’d say that.”
“Zerena,” Jepp spoke up. “I . . . do not think you under-
s t a n d . M y s k i l l s... m y g i f t f o r p l easuring, if you
will . . .
that is truly what it is. A gift. For me to utilize that gift in or-
der to obtain personal gain, to get myself power and sta-
t u s... t h a t w o u l d b e a n a f f r o n t . Don’t you see that?
An affront. I could never do that. Not ever. Even if it means that
I am never any more than what you see before you right now.”
Zerena considered that, and then announced, “You’re an idiot.” She stood,
stretching her legs, and headed over to the fire. The pan was still situated
near it, basking in the warmth of the fire.
“I do not think she likes me much,” Jepp muttered to
Mingo.
“Actually, for her, telling you you’re an idiot is perilously close to a term
of endearment. Why, you should hear the things she calls her son, and her love
for him is never in question.”
“And Rafe Kestor? Does she bear love for him? And for y o u ? A n d... what
is the one you called ‘Gant’? I do not understand any of—”
“Quiet!”
shouted Mingo, suddenly on his feet, his nos-
trils searching the air. Zerena looked up from the food she was picking at. At
first there was a questioning look upon
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PETER DAVID

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her face, but that cleared immediately as she understood, without having it
told to her, what was transpiring.
“Who or what?” she demanded. She tossed aside the food she’d been sampling.
Jepp, oblivious to anything else that was going on, moaned as the food
scattered all over the ground.
Instantly she ran to it, her feet slap- slapping on the ground of the
plateau, and tried to gather it and get it back into the pan.
Zerena paid her no heed. “Who or what?” she said once more, and although there
was no sound of worry in her voice, the concern was evident.
“Don’t you smell them? Hear them? How can you not hear them?” said Mingo.
“What them is it? Is it Mandraques?”
Immediately Rafe Kestor had his sword out, snarling vi-
cious defiance. “Let them come!” he shouted. “I will show them the true
foolishness of . . .”
“
Not now, Rafe!” Zerena snapped at him.
Mingo, meantime, began to shudder inwardly. The trem-
bling came in response to something within him that was so primal, so basic to
him, he knew what the source had to be even though he had not quite
consciously identified the smell yet.
“Travelers,” he whispered.
As if on cue, Karsen Foux abruptly scrambled up and over the edge of the
plateau. While Mingo was just barely keeping himself contained, the effect
their approach was having on
Karsen was all too visible.
“Travelers!”
he cried out. “In the distance! Coming this way! Coming for !”
us
And now all of them could feel the rumbling, bearing down upon them from the
east. “Break everything down!”
Zerena shouted. “Get everything in the jumpcar!
Hurry!
Hurry!”
There was no group alive capable of breaking down an encampment as fast as a
group of Bottom Feeders. Further-
more there were no individuals on the Damned World that could move as fast
as Bottom Feeders on the run. Combine the two, and the result was that they
had their tents and
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107

equipment stowed inside the back end of the jumpcar—
their oversized vehicle—in under a minute.
Yet during that minute the Travelers had drawn ever closer. The reverberations
of their mounts had gone from a distant thunder to a storm of sound that
threatened to envelop them. They clambered inside the jumpcar, all save Gant,
who oozed up onto the top of the jumpcar and stretched himself as thin as he
could. A strong aroma arose from him, pun-
gent and eye- watering, as it usually did when he was faced with a
hazardous situation. The rest of the Bottom Feeders had learned to live with
it, but it was Jepp’s first time, and
Mingo saw that Jepp was squinting furiously and tears were running down her
face. But she suffered in silence, which was fortunate.
What was unfortunate was that there was no room for
Jepp in the jumpcar. There were only four seats and they were cramped in as
it was. Jepp stood there, looking fright-
ened and helpless.
“Jepp!”
shouted Karsen, barely able to make himself heard over the pounding of the

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oncoming Travelers. Zerena cast a disinterested glance at her and then the
large side door began to slide closed. Karsen wedged his hands in, prevent-
ing it from shutting. “Mother, we can’t leave her—!”
“We’re tight as it is, and she’ll just slow us down!” Zer-
ena snapped at him. “Get out of the doorway!”
“Mother, no!” He reached toward Jepp, trying to get to her.
And Jepp took several steps back, shaking her head.
“Leave! Hurry! Get away from here! Don’t let the Travelers get you, too! Go,
just go!”
“Jepp!”
“Karsen!”
“
Oh, for the love of gods, we don’t have time for this melodramatic shit!”
howled Mingo. And suddenly his large frame was in the opening, shoving the
door wide, and he ripped his seat out of the jumpcar and tossed it onto the
plateau. Jepp watched it bounce away in surprise, and then
108
PETER DAVID

yelped as he reached out and grabbed her by the arm. One quick pull and she
was in the jumpcar, scrunched tightly against Mingo, who was on the floor.
“Now let’s go! Come on!
Go!
”
The jumpcar roared to life, pulled back six inches...
and stalled out.
For a long moment, nobody said anything. Then Zerena let out a frustrated howl
and slammed the dashboard.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said an incredulous
Mingo.
Jepp tried to peer over Zerena’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“We’re not moving,” Zerena snapped at her.
“You know,” said Rafe Kestor, “I
thought we weren’t, but
I was reluctant to say anything.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“Stop saying that, Mingo, you’re not helping,” said
Karsen.
“And how, precisely, could
I help?”
“Care to get out and push?”
“Both of you, shut up!”
Zerena was thrusting furiously on the ignition lever. The motor rumbled
slightly but otherwise didn’t seem inclined to start the vehicle moving again.
“It’s the hotstar. It’s not delivering enough power to fire the engine.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know, Mingo! I’m not a damned techwiz! I flip the switch, the jumpcar
moves, that’s all I’ve ever asked of it!” Zerena was fuming, and it was
getting difficult for
Mingo to hear her over the increasing pounding of the approaching Travelers on
their draquons.
“Maybe... m aybe they won’t notice us?” Jepp sounded hopeful.
“Of course they’ll notice us!” Zerena told her angrily.
“And everyone knows how the Overseer feels about Bottom
Feeders! They’ll leave our guts strung out all over the field!”
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“But . . . we did nothing wrong!”
“It’s got nothing to do with right or wrong,” Karsen said, sounding grim, “and
everything to do with just being hated.”
“But how do you know the Overseer—”
Fed up with Jepp’s incessant questions, Mingo clamped a hand over her mouth.
He made sure not to cover her nose, so that she could breathe. Her eyes
widened in surprise, and
Karsen looked alarmed and started to rise from his chair.
But Mingo gave him a warning glance and Karsen remained where he was.
All talking ceased. Mingo’s thoughts were filled with all the regrets that
composed his life, a fairly sizable list.
Closer came the Travelers, and closer still, and Mingo thought he was going to
scream from the waiting, from the knowing that any second they would be
here, would be everywhere...
. . . and then the draquons thundered past, down by the bottom of the plateau.
He wasn’t sure how many there were, for they were a mass of black, moving so
quickly, and it was impossible to distinguish one from the other.
He saw hints of their wings, which were rolled back and tight against their
bodies since the beasts were galloping rather than flying, and the vague
forms of the Travelers hunched down and low over them. He was able to make
out, though, the glowing red of the draquons’ eyes, and their mouths were
wide open and screeching so loudly that
Mingo thought he was going to go mad, that was all, just totally insane, that
he would start clawing at the sides of his head until he’d ripped his skin off
and be left a bleed-
ing mess.
And then they were gone.
The screeching of the draquons slowly receded into the distance. The ground’s
rumbling lessened and eventually stopped altogether. The Bottom Feeders looked
at one an-
other with confusion and even a bit of awe, unable to be-
lieve that they were still there. The Travelers had totally ignored them.
Jepp was mumbling something incomprehensible, and
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PETER DAVID

it was only then that Mingo realized his hand was still covering her mouth.
“Sorry,” he muttered, and released his grip on her. She gulped in air as he
asked, “What did you say?”
“I was asking you if you could remove your hand from my mouth now.”
“Ah. Well . . . all right. That’s moot, I suppose.”
“They went right past us,” Karsen said in amazement.
“Did they not see us?”
“Oh, they saw us,” Rafe Kestor spoke up with convic-
tion. Mingo marveled at how the old Mandraque was able to fade in and out of
situations, sometimes sounding evoca-
tive of the warrior he once was—as he did now—and other times like a
doddering, errant fool. “They saw us. Rather, their draquons did. What ever
their mounts see, they see as well.”
“How do you know their draquons saw us?” asked Jepp.
“Because,” Rafe Kestor said darkly, “their mounts and my kind are not all that
far removed, one from the other. I
could sense them . . . sensing us. Oh, they knew we were here. They knew.”
“But they ignored us,” said Karsen.
“Yes. Yes, they did. And the why of that, young Karsen, I
could not begin to know for sure. At a guess... t h e y h a d something of
more importance to deal with than a pack of
Bottom Feeders like us.”
“Then we should thank the gods for what ever that more important thing is,”

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said Mingo. “Thank it . . . and pray for it on its behalf, whoever—or
whatever—the poor thing is, to have so attracted the Travelers’ attention.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
111

FIREDRAQUE HALL, PERRIZ
i.
The shouting within Firedraque Hall was becoming so over-
whelming that Nicrominus of the Firedraques finally qui-
eted them as only he could.
Nicrominus was one of the oldest and most distinguished-
looking Firedraques. His scaled skin was red where the
Mandraques’ skin was dusky green, and his jade eyes were mounted on either
side of his head, swiveling in de pen -
dently of each other as they took in the entirety of the hall.
The hall was one of the few buildings in Perriz that re-
mained standing after the Third Wave swept through the hu-
man city, annihilating all who attempted to resist them. For that matter, they
annihilated even those who were present-
ing no re sis tance at all, which was, oddly enough, the case of many of the
former residents of Perriz. They had tried their best to surrender to the
forces of the Third Wave, and been slaughtered for their attempt. After that,
the Third Wave had proceeded to destroy most of the buildings, not because it
was necessary, but merely to display their contempt for creatures who would
give up so easily.
Firedraque Hall, as it had been renamed, was one of the few structures that
was spared, mostly through the heroic and determined efforts of a brace of
Firedraques who kept their more bellicose brethren away. Nicrominus was
reason-
ably certain it had once been a place of worship, where the humans had come to
commune with their gods . . . gods who had obviously abandoned them, presuming
that they’d ever been there in the first place. But the building had been an
im-
pressive accomplishment . . . the kind that humans had been capable of, and
the kind that Mandraques and others of the
Twelve Races generally liked to pretend were mere flukes,

rather than proof that humans might have been a worthy or worthwhile race at
some point. The ceiling of the hall stretched so high that Nicrominus had to
squint to see it, and there were mighty colored windows through which the
sun would filter. There were also, cleverly enough, troughs situ-
ated around the roof into which hot molten liquid could be dumped and sent
cascading down upon enemies, making
Firedraque Hall that much easier to protect.
Not many Firedraques actually resided there. It was the nature of their race
to wander, to serve as sort of vagabond adjudicators and spreaders of the law.
Their law. It was a slow, laborious pro cess, but the brethren of Nicrominus
were patient folk, willing to invest the time for the good of all the races
upon the Damned World.
Nicrominus was one of the mainstays of the hall, how-
ever, and so it was left to him to deal with the situation when the Five Clans
descended en masse upon him, each of them complaining of their ill use and
demanding satisfaction.
He pondered the irony that, naturally, the fools had waited until it was too
late. He knew full well that the plain of Marsay ran thick with Mandraque
blood. He knew that they had violated the dictates of the laws that the Fire-
draques had set forth. They were laws that were supposed to govern
Mandraque dealings and congress, and avoid pre-

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cisely this pointless loss of life. But all the clan leaders were loudly
accusing each other of provoking the situation, de-
stroying the peace, and setting the bloody conflict into mo-
tion. They themselves were blameless, they insisted. They themselves had
been ill used, had been pushed to the wall, had had no choice. As charges and
countercharges flew past him like a swarm of bees on a hot summer’s day,
Nicromi-
nus allowed their voices to merge into one indistinct buzzing, in hope that
they might miraculously come to some sort of accord or—even simpler—just
kill each other and get it over with.
Gorsh of Cheng was howling at the top of his lungs with such ferocity that
Nicrominus thought Gorsh’s eyes were going to explode. Thulsa Odomo was
shouting right back, DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
113

giving as good as he got. Pacing the table, circling uneasily, was Bazilikus,
his malevolent gaze sweeping all who were seated there. Some maintained that
leaders of his clan were able to cause enemies to drop dead with merely a
glance. It was a claim that, to the knowledge of Nicrominus, had never been
tested. Heading in the other direction around the table was Jormund, the
largest and oldest of the clan lead-
ers. He moved slowly and ponderously. Whenever he spoke he did so as if saying
something remarkably portentous.
The one who caught Nicrominus’s attention, however, was the youn gest of the
clan leaders. His name was Arren
Kinklash, or at least, that was what he had named himself.
Unlike the others, he stood some feet away from the im-
mediate disputes. He barely moved; indeed, to the casual observer, he might
have seemed to be dead. His eyes were lazily half- lidded, but Nicrominus
was certain nothing in all these heated exchanges was going past him.
Gorsh pointed a trembling finger at Thulsa.
“You lie!”
he snarled. “I know perfectly well that your people entered our territory
because they were trying to start a fight. They repre-
sented your interests in trying to take our land!”
“Why would we want your crap land?” Thulsa finally managed to get out a
sentence longer than two words. “We have more than enough of our own!”
“No, you don’t!”
Jormund snorted loudly at that assertion. “Are you look-
ing to give them reasons for attacking you? Is that your plan? ‘Thanks to
Gorsh of Cheng, we now realize that we don’t have enough land! So we’re
going to try and take his.’
Most ingenious, Gorsh.”
“Shut up, you! You covet our land as well!”
His voice suddenly hard and unpleasant, Jormund slammed the table with his
open palm. “Oh, is that the ex-
cuse you’re trotting out now? That we coveted your land? Is that why you sent
out raiding parties on helpless settle-
ments!” His spiked tail whipped around in agitation.
“Settlements that were on our land, blocking our progress!”
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PETER DAVID

“With that attitude, is it any wonder that you attacked—”
“ W e a t t a c k e d...? ! ”
“Ah hah!” Thulsa spoke up, pointing at Gorsh. “You see, he admits it!”
“I admit nothing!”
“How typical since you so rarely take responsibility for anything that you—”

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None of them noticed that Nicrominus was murmuring softly to himself as if in
silent prayer. Only one of the clan heads noticed when, in the great closed
hall, a wind current somehow began to stir. That one was Arren Kinklash, whose
slitted eyes were narrowed in thought. He sniffed the air suspiciously and
glanced toward Nicrominus, but said noth-
ing. However, the slightest of smiles played at the edges of his mouth. And
then, with remarkable prescience, Arren puts his hands over his earholes.
Seconds later, all shouting at the table was lost in howls of pain as
thunderous clanging echoed from bells set high in a tower overhead. Powerful
winds were swirling above, setting the bells tolling, and the peals smashed
through the air with such force—as least as far as the Mandraques were
concerned—that it seemed to them as if their heads would burst open like
overripe fruit. Jormund, the heaviest of them, staggered about and then
crashed heavily onto the table, up-
ending it. The impact knocked back Gorsh, whose lower jaw was clipped by the
edge of the table. Only his coiled tail prevented him from falling to the
floor.
Arren, for his part, had made certain to distance himself from the table. He
squeezed his eyes tightly to resist the thudding of the waves of sound against
him. But since he’d had his ears covered from the outset, he’d been spared the
initial shock and thus was in far less pain than his peers.
“Stop it! Stop it!”
howled Bazilikus. Thulsa had yanked his sword from his sheath and was waving
it about in almost comical fashion, as if he could cleave the bells high above
with his blade.
Nicrominus was in no distress at all, since Firedraques were not nearly as
sensitive to noise as Mandraques were. He
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
115

was laughing softly, a noise like a faint rasp. Gripping his staff firmly, he
was twisting it from side to side as if churning butter. The bells continued
for as long as Nicrominus felt it necessary in order to drive his point home,
and then he whis-
pered the secret name of winds and they responded to him.
Slowly they subsided and, as they did so, the bells began to taper off in
their volume as well.
The leaders of the Five Clans, the most powerful and in-
fluential of the Mandraques, looked rather comical as they tried to pull
themselves together. The only exception to that was Arren, who was studying
the others with a clinical and amused eye while looking not at all nonplussed
over what had just happened.
“ Y o u m u s t u n d e r s t a n d... ” N i c r o m i nus began.
“We don’t have to understand anything!” Gorsh snapped.
Then to his surprise, Jormund slapped him in the back of the head, a caution
to shut up and listen, and a mute reminder of just who was speaking and the
decorum re-
quired. Jormund was the only one who could have gotten away with such rude
behavior when it came to Gorsh. He growled low in his throat in response, but
made no other reply.
“You must understand,” Nicrominus started again, not acknowledging in the
slightest that Gorsh had spoken, “that other Firedraques are far more activist
than I. It is they who put together the treaties that you willfully dis-
obeyed by trying to exploit minuscule loopholes. It is they who created the
laws under which we live . . . laws that have enabled us to survive the
scrutiny of the Overseer.
And it is they who, were they here instead of me, would very likely have
slain the lot of you in response to your petty squabbles, and left your bones
to bleach on the near-

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est rocks.
“Know you nothing? Remember you nothing? These pa-
thetic displays, this warlike behavior, is part of what re-
sulted in the lot of us being sentenced to this Damned
World in the first place. It is part of what made us the Ban-
ished. It is why we were cast out. We of the Firedraques
116
PETER DAVID

have endeavored to grow up, to mature. To set an example so that the rest of
us can survive in this hostile realm.”
“What did he say?” asked a still dazed Thulsa, thumping the side of his head
with his hand, trying to restore his hear-
ing.
“Nicrominus is right,” Arren spoke up. The Firedraque looked at him with mild
reproof, since he was not done speaking. But he opted to say nothing and allow
the youn -
gest clan leader to talk. “We united to destroy the Morts,”
continued Arren. “Why could that unity not remain? We must come together, if
for no other reason than that we are stronger united than separate.”
“You would like that, would you not,” Gorsh said with a tone that did not
sound especially sympathetic.
“Well, yes, Gorsh, I would,” Arren replied. “I believe that’s what I just
said. So obviously, I would like it.”
“You would like us to be united for your own ends!”
“Since my ends involve our mutual protection, then again, the answer is yes.
However I’m not entirely sure what you’re—”
And Gorsh was on his feet, spreading his arms wide, his voice bellowing
through the hall. “Oh, he is not sure! Not entirely sure! Then allow me to
clarify,” and he pointed an angry, trembling finger at Arren. “I know all
about you, Kinklash.”
“Do you,” Arren said calmly. He stepped away from Gorsh, and although there
was nothing hurried in his steps, he never-
theless was keeping a wary eye on the larger, more powerful
Gorsh. “I wasn’t aware there was all that much to know. I am, after all,
rather new to all of this . . .”
“I wish to point out,” Nicrominus spoke up, “that I still had a few things to
say.”
Gorsh paid no attention to Nicrominus, either because he was too focused upon
Arren Kinklash, or because his hear-
ing was still a bit out of whack after the sonorous bells had done their work.
“I have a son, you know, near grown. And he speaks to me of you. He says that
your desire is to rule over the Five Clans! That we would all answer to you!”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
117

“I think it obvious,” Arren replied steadily, “that we need someone to rule
over the Five Clans. How can we speak with one voice if there is not one voice
speaking for us?”
“And you believe that ruler should be you!”
“I believe it should be whoever we five decide upon.”
With utter contempt, Gorsh spat at Arren. Arren nimbly sidestepped it, and
when the wad of spittle hit the floor, it erupted in a very small but visible
puff of flame. Arren stared at the smoky remains in surprise. “All right,
that’s something
I haven’t seen before,” he admitted, sounding impressed. “In-
teresting heritage you Chengs have.”
Gorsh was acting like a beast that had spied an open wound upon another,

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weaker creature. Thulsa and Bazilikus were shouting at him that this behavior
was inappropriate, that he should back away from Arren immediately. But
Gorsh did not seem inclined to back away from anyone.
“You think you’re more clever than I, don’t you,” Gorsh continued. Arren
continued to retreat, and Gorsh to advance upon him. Nicrominus made no move
to break up the con-
frontation, but instead remained in his chair with his armed folded, curious
to see how matters would turn out. “More crafty, more cunning. You think
you’re the natural leader here.”
“Do you even require me to participate in this conversa-
tion?” asked Arren with a carefully calculated air of open-
ness. “I mean, you’re doing quite well on your own . . .”
Gorsh’s tail snaked to and fro behind him. Arren cast a glance toward it but
didn’t allow himself to be too distracted by it.
“What makes you think you can rule us, eh? What makes you so damnably
superior!”
Still backing up, his arms to either side as if he were walking a narrow
ledge, Arren said, “All right . . . if you in-
sist . . . my superiority stems from my ability to think ahead.” His forked
tongue flashed out slightly, tasting the air. “And your lack of ability to do
so is what holds you back.”
“How dare you—!”
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PETER DAVID

“You asked,” Arren told him, sounding reasonable. He angled sharply to the
right and Gorsh followed him, stalk-
ing him, waiting for Arren to make some sort of sudden move. “I wouldn’t
have told you had you not asked.”
“Fool! Idiot!” shouted Gorsh, his voice rising. “You think you’re far cleverer
than I?”
“Honestly, yes.”
“And can anticipate me?
Hah!
”
Arren had moved in a semicircle with Gorsh follow-
ing in his track. Suddenly Arren stopped, apparently de-
ciding to make a stand. He was positioned not all that far from the mammoth
front doors. Gorsh, who had been following but was waiting for the exact right
moment to make an attack, promptly halted. He hissed loudly, rock-
ing back and forth on his heels and, occasionally, side to side.
“Did you anticipate that I would kill you this day?” Gorsh demanded.
“Gorsh, this is quite enough!” Jormund called out, but he made no attempt to
advance on them.
“As a matter of fact, yes, I did anticipate that,” Arren told him readily.
“You see, I’ve been hearing things about you as well. Particularly that you
were looking to make an exam-
ple of one of the clan heads, and I was the most likely since you see me as
the weakest.”
“Well, I will credit you to be decent at information gather-
ing,” Gorsh said in grudging ac know ledg ment. He took two more steps
forward. “If it makes you feel any better . . . I do not plan to kill you. I
will, however, remove one or two of your limbs, just so you remember the
lesson.”
Abruptly, Arren placed his fingers between his lips and blew hard. A sharp,
piercing whistle emerged from his lips, and Gorsh took a step back, shaking
his head in annoyance.
“Insolent fool! Did you think to deafen me just now?”
“No, not at all,” replied Arren, lowering his fingers. “But since you’re

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speaking of lessons being learned... I t h o u g h t
I would find a way to educate you as well, so you would be convinced that I
do, indeed, think ahead.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
119

“And how do you propose to do that?”
“Oh, if you think hard, I’m sure it will hit you.”
That was the moment when a hellacious clanging erupted from above. The
previous bell- related noises had at least been melodious to some degree,
even if they were difficult for Mandraque ears to withstand. But they had
been nothing compared with the hammering crashing noise that now filled the
hall. Gorsh staggered with his hands clapped to either side of his head. There
was an escalating cacophony of crashing and clanging and thudding, bells
slamming into one another, and they were getting much closer, much faster.
Gorsh went to his knees, unable to bear the sounds, and then, in his agony, he
decided to look up.
A huge bell was plummeting straight toward him. Its monumental clapper swung
around within, sending peals of sheer noise pummeling into Gorsh. Gorsh tried
to get to his feet but failed, and did not have time for a second attempt as
the massive bell—weighing nearly thirty tons—crashed down upon him. Gorsh
vanished beneath it as the bell kept right on going, the floor crumbling
beneath it. Arren leaped back, an impressive vault that took him all the way
to the meeting table as the section of floor beneath where he had stood
vanished along with the bell. The other clan heads stared, stupefied, as the
bell continued to fall beneath them before landing in the catacombs beneath,
crashing to a halt.
The echoes of the bell continued for long moments, and even long after they
died away, they still said nothing, but just stared at one another. The only
individual in the place who had not budged from his spot was Nicrominus, who
simply looked amused.
There was the sound of thundering feet as several younger
Firedraques, apprentices, students, and servants to Nicromi-
nus, came running from all areas to determine what in the world had been the
source of that calamitous racket. They stared in shock at the gaping hole in
the floor.
The first one to arrive had been, as Nicrominus might have anticipated, Xeris.
Xeris was tall and lean, with a narrow
120
PETER DAVID

snout and eyes that sparkled with pure intelligence. It was an attribute that
had prompted Nicrominus to pay Xeris a good deal of attention . . . partly
because he appreciated a fine mind, and partly because he was cautious enough
to see potential danger from Xeris in the future and so wanted to be able to
keep a wary eye upon him.
“What . . . ?” Xeris finally managed to stammer out.
“What . . . what did...? ”
“We were having negotiations, Xeris,” Nicrominus in-
formed him.
“But . . . what happened
?”
“They fell through,” said Arren Kinklash.
ii.
Arren Kinklash was savoring the looks of total astonishment upon the faces of
everyone there. He saw now the opportu-
nity to slam home a victory in as thorough and convincing a manner as he had
slammed home the bell upon the hapless

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Gorsh.
Jormund was the first to recover his voice, although it was barely above a
whisper. “Wh- What did you . . . just do?”
“Endeavored to make a point. Have I succeeded?” Arren asked quietly.
Nicrominus turned to his students and retainers. “I think it would be best,”
he told them gently, “if you would return to your duties. Xeris... w e w ill
need to repair the floor.
You will see to that, won’t you?”
“Y-Yes, Nicrominus,” Xeris managed to say.
“ Y o u... y o u... ” A s t h e s t udents and retainers filed out,
Bazilikus kept looking up toward the highest reaches of the hall and then back
down to the gaping hole that took up al-
most the entirety of the entranceway. “You... d r opped that o n h i m ? H
o w d i d y o u...? ”
“Because I knew, Bazilikus.” Arren’s attitude changed ever so subtly, the
pleasant demeanor giving way to a tone
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
121

of harsh cynicism. “I knew that Gorsh detested me. I knew he would try to move
against me.”
“ B u t h o w...? ”
“Because that’s what I do. I know things.” Arren let that pronouncement hang
there a moment, and then continued, “I know things, I figure things out, I
anticipate things. I
know precisely what others are going to do, and then I pre-
pare for them. Are you beginning to understand that now?
Because Gorsh didn’t, nor would he ever have believed me if I’d told him. So I
chose to use him to make my point and thus solve two problems with one stroke.
And my point—
in case you were wondering—is that of all the clan heads, I
am the one whom you should take the greatest pains never to underestimate.
Which means that if any of you is con-
s i d e r i n g s o m e s o r t o f r e t a l i a t i o n... y o u w o u
l d b e w e l l a d -
vised to consider that I have already anticipated it and made preparations.
Are any of you inclined to challenge me in that regard?”
The clan heads looked at one another uncomfortably. Jor-
mund stepped forward, his tail twitching, his brow beetled and dark. “Have you
considered your precipitous action will doubtless make you a target for
Gorsh’s son?”
“You mean Gorshen?” Arren made no attempt to hide his smile this time.
“Gorshen despised his father . . . possibly from the first day Gorshen cracked
his egg. Most of Gorsh’s retainers and guards despised him as well, but none
of them dared to make the first move against him. They feared what would
happen to them if they failed.”
T h u l s a e y e d A r r e n t h o u g h t f u l l y . “ Y o u a r e s
a y i n g... t h a t you and Gorshen have... ”
“Come to an understanding, yes. He was well aware that h i s f a t h e r m i
g h t m e e t w i t h a... ” H e g l anced upward.
“ ...f r eak accident . . . although there are those who would call the
accident suspicious. But since Gorshen will be far too consumed with his
duties as new head of the Cheng clan, I very much doubt that he will have any
time to listen to them. At least . . . that is how he put it to me when he and
I discussed it some time ago.”
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The clan heads looked at one another in a manner that Ar-
ren was easily able to read. He could see it going through their minds.
He outmaneuvered Gorsh. And Gorsh was the craftiest of us. What else does he
have planned? What other trickery awaits us? Do we dare cross him? Is he able
to read our very thoughts? Perhaps he is secretly in league with the
Firedraques. If he has the backing of their elemental abili-
t i e s , w h y... w e may never leave here alive.
“Listen to me very carefully, my fellow clan heads,” Arren said. “We are
stronger together than separately. These con-
stant battles, the rising body counts . . . it must stop. It has to stop.” He
walked slowly around them, his voice rising with fervency. Nicrominus never
took his eyes off him. The oth-
ers continued to glance upward as if concerned they would be annihilated next.
“Can’t you sense them there?” he de-
manded. He pointed off in the general direction of the west, and their gaze
followed where he was pointing. “Watching us. Looking down upon us. Laughing
at us. Our exilers, the ones who sent us here. Represented by the Overseer,
who keeps his Travelers moving through our midst, monitoring us, keeping us on
guard and at each other’s throats. The Fire-
draques have tried to show us the way
. Gods know they have tried. And sooner or later, we must acknowledge that the
way they have shown us is the true way. The sane way. So I
feel the need to ask you, my friends . . . my peers, my . . .”
He thumped Jormund, the nearest, on the arm. Jormund looked at him
suspiciously. “My brothers- in- arms. I ask you, why should it not be
sooner? Why should we not set aside our destructive tendencies now? See each
other as potential allies rather than potential foes.”
“I made much the same observations,” Nicrominus noted dryly, “and it did not
seem to have much effect.”
“With all respect, eldritch one,” Arren said, clicking his heels and bowing
slightly, “you are not one of us. Perhaps one of us has to say it . . . and,
in so doing, open up possi-
bilities for all of us.” He let that sink in for a moment, and then said,
“There can be no decision made here today.
M e r e l y... f ood for thought.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
123

“And food for worms,” commented Thulsa, nodding in the direction of the
impromptu grave that housed the remains of
G o r s h... o r what remains there were after being hit by a falling
object that was the weight of a hundred boulders.
The snide remark actually prompted some chuckling from the others, and Arren
nodded approvingly. He was not surprised. He had known full well that Gorsh
had no real supporters among the other clan heads, and that his demise would
cause no Mandraque mourning.
And just as surely as he knew that, he also knew that he had to be the one who
would be recognized as the central king. He could have pressed the matter
right then, but his every instinct told him it was a poor idea, and so he re-
strained himself and instead said simply, “I suggest we return to our
respective halls for now, to reconvene in . . .
s a y... fi v e t u r ns? That should be sufficient time to dis-
cuss these matters, eh?”
This drew a hurried concurrence from the others. Arren knew that they were
still shaken, and probably were grate-
ful for the opportunity to take the time to consider all that had happened.
Arren was perfectly fine with that.
He just didn’t want them to take too long to consider it.
iii.

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Norda Kinklash scampered around the upper reaches of the tower, giggling and
whispering and having all manner of private conversations with herself. She
was pleased with herself, ever so pleased, and could not wait to tell Arren
just how pleased she was and why and all other sorts of things, if she could
only remember them.
She halted her bounding around, pausing and frowning.
Her passing thoughts about Arren reminded her that he wasn’t here. She was
waiting for him and becoming ever so cross that he was making her wait like
this. She knew that he was the busy sort, always getting involved in this or
that or the other thing, but she also knew that he depended upon
124
PETER DAVID

her, and this was certainly no way to treat someone you de-
pended upon. She might just have to punish him for it, since she was becoming
oh so vexed. Provided she remembered long enough...
“Norda! What the hell are you doing up there?”
She froze where she was, hanging upside down, her tail wrapped around a high
crossbeam. She wrapped her arms around herself, hugging herself joyously, and
her long pink tongue slithered out and ran across the tops of her pointed
teeth. “Did I do it right, Arren? Tell me if I did! I will be most upset if
you say I didn’t . . .”
Arren hauled himself up into the tower, huffing slightly from the long trek up
the stairs. He forced a smile despite his exhaustion and said, “You did it
exactly right, Norda. You cut through the ropes at exactly the right moment,
when I whis-
tled, just as I asked you to. I have to admit, I was ner vous. I
had no clue that Nicrominus would set the bells to ringing earlier. I had a
vision of my whistling to you as we prearranged, and you—deafened from the
bells—unable to hear the signal.”
“You needn’t have,” she chortled. “I felt the winds, saw them start to move
the bells. I knew before anyone what was going to happen. I got distance,
covered my ears. I was clever, oh so clever . . .”
“I knew you would be,” Arren said.
Suddenly she swung herself toward Arren, released her hold on the crossbeam,
landed less than a foot away from him and snapped her jaws right at his face.
Arren flinched back, surprised and annoyed. “What was the purpose of that!”
“Just showing you. Just showing. Aren’t my teeth won-
derfully sharp?” She clacked her jaws repeatedly.
“Yes, wonderfully sharp, now be careful.” He put one hand atop her jaws gently
and one underneath.
For a heartbeat she felt annoyance at the way he was treating her. After all,
he was only a few hundred turns older than she. Yet he tended to treat her as
if she was much younger. She figured he probably thought she didn’t notice,
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
125

but she did. She wasn’t sure why he treated her in that fash-
ion, but mightily hoped that he would stop doing so.
“Bit right through the ropes, I did,” she said proudly. She swept her spiked
tail over his head and Arren practically had to flatten himself on the floor
to avoid getting a spike in his head. She barely noticed. “And I used this to
cut through, too. I had to move fast, you know. That’s what you said.
When I heard the whistle, I had to move fast.”
“You moved wonderfully fast.”
“So are you king yet?” She was eager to hear all about it.
“Did they make you king of all the clans? Did they crown you? Did they walk
you around upon their shoulders and sing little chants for you?”

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“They did nothing of the sort. I advised them to return to their halls, and
they did so.”
She was surprised to hear that, cocking her head slightly and staring up at
him with her slitted green eyes. “Why? I
don’t understand. Did you tell them that you are to be their king?”
He rested his hands upon her shoulders and spoke to her in a manner that he
presumably thought came across as pa-
tient, but actually only served to annoy Norda. “These things must be handled
delicately, Norda.”
“Oh, must they.” She did not sound impressed.
“If I press the matter, they will balk. They must have time to come to the
conclusion themselves that my leadership is best for all concerned, and that
they should all be united as one below me. If they feel that I am forcing them
in that d i r e c t i o n... ”
“Then it might be you buried under a bell next time?” she asked, wide- eyed.
“Or with a knife in my back, yes. But don’t worry,” he said, patting her
cheek. “It will not come to that. We will be united.
And with all the Mandraques united, we will be able to pro-
vide a substantive force against the Travelers. We’ll finally be able to take
control of the Damned World and have control over our own destinies.”
“Our own destinies!”
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PETER DAVID

Delirious with the notion, Norda ricocheted backward.
Within seconds she was a blur, rebounding this way and that, springing off
with her legs or arms or tail from any one of a dozen directions. “Norda!”
Arren kept shouting.
“Norda!” She paid him no heed, far too caught up in her personal paroxysms of
joy.
She bounded out of the tower, out onto the ledge. An alarmed Arren was right
after her. He got there and let out a horrified yelp as he saw no sign of her.
Quickly he crossed to the ledge, looking down, shouting, “Norda!”
It was only when he heard her self- satisfied snicker that he turned and
looked with tremendous annoyance behind him-
self. Norda was perched above, clinging to a twisted statue of a creature that
looked like a cross between a Trull and a draquon. There were a number of
them, rocky guardians of the rooftop, or perhaps of the building itself.
“Norda, will you come down from there!” he ordered her with rapidly dwindling
patience.
As if he hadn’t spoken, she gazed into the distance with a distracted air.
“Tell me, Arren,” she asked, her voice abruptly filled with a clarity that it
did not usually possess, “if the
Travelers were to discover your plans . . . if they knew your aspirations,
or if the Overseer were to learn of them . . . how do you think it would go
for you?”
He snorted at the notion. “Not well. But they will not find out. You needn’t
concern yourself. I’ve thought of every-
thing, left nothing to chance. You haven’t the slightest rea-
son to worry.”
“I can think of one.”
“And what,” he asked with infinite patience, “would that be?”
For response, she pointed. He turned and looked where she was indicating.
A squad of at least half a dozen Travelers was coming up over the horizon
line. It was usually hard to tell just how many Travelers there were when
they were seen in a group.
Somehow their numbers seemed to shift for no reason that anyone could
determine.
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But Travelers they most definitely were, their cloaks of bloodred and purple
streaming out behind them, their draquons charging across the ground,
propelled forward by their small but powerful wings. Travelers...
. . . and they were heading, with the precision and accu-
racy of an arrow, directly toward Firedraque Hall.
“Am I right?” Norda asked eagerly. “Is it a right reason to worry?”
Arren, trembling where he stood, was too terrified to reply.
SUBTERROR
Reality swirled around Merrih, except it was not reality. Or at least no
reality with which she was familiar.
There were creatures gazing at her, as they were kissing her and licking
her and making her feel warm, so warm. It was so strange, for she felt
invigorated and exhausted all at the same time. Exhilarated but tired. She had
no clue how she could have such mutually exclusive feelings. It made sense in
the dream, but it was as if her mind had become split right down the middle.
Half her mind was still in the dreaming, where all that was surreal and
ridiculous was log-
ical. The other half was struggling toward wakefulness, des-
perately trying to comprehend where she was, what had happened to her, and why
none of it made any sense.
Very, very gradually, that part of her that was leaning to-
ward wakefulness began to dominate. There was no one upon her now, no lips
against her, no one nurturing her or d r a w i n g f r o m h e r . S h e r
e m e m b e r e d... she remembered there had been that woman, that . . .
strange female. What was she called? Sunara. The Mistress. Mistress Sunara,
and she had said sweet things to her, things so sweet that Merrih had never
imagined anything so erotic could be uttered, nor
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PETER DAVID

such glorious sensation be felt. Even now, as it spiraled into the furthermost
reaches of her mind, it silently beckoned her to follow, and she almost
abandoned her attempts at wakefulness so she could pursue that exquisite
stimulation into what ever dark recesses of her mind it might care to hide.
But then she heard a voice. A female voice, and it was younger than Sunara’s,
and it said, “She awakens. May I
talk to her?”
“Quiet. You hasten her at a time when she should not be hastened. There are
delicacies at work here, Clarinda. I
thought I had taught you better.”
“My apologies, Mother,” came the humble and appropri-
ately chastened response.
Merrih fought herself to full consciousness and discov-
ered that she was lying splayed upon an ornately decorated bed. No, not a
bed... t w o beds that had been pushed to-
gether in order to accommodate her size. The mattresses were soft, and she
almost sank into them. There were posts at either end of the beds that
were intricately carved with designs that were—upon closer inspection—Piri
bodies in-
tertwined in an endless orgy of lust and hunger. It was im-
agery that would have repulsed Merrih not long ago. Now the niece of the
Ocular king considered them to be attrac-
tively intriguing.
She reached down to discover that she was naked. She made vague attempts to
cover herself with the bedding, but found that she had not the energy to move
at all. In fact, she could barely lift her head. She blinked her eye to try

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and clear the cobwebs from her mind. Finally she was able to see who else
was standing in the chamber.
There was no one else except the two Piri. She knew one of them, of course.
That was Sunara Redeye. The other, however, was unknown to her. But there was
no great mys-
tery about her. She had addressed Sunara as “Mother” and
Sunara had answered. Obviously this was her daughter.
Clarinda looked like a slightly smaller version of Sunara.
Her face was a bit more angular, her chin more defiantly
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
129

upthrust. Ultimately, however, she looked like Sunara redux . . . except for
one major difference. Clarinda, scant-
ily clad as she was, clearly had breasts. They were small, but they were
there. Merrih had no idea whether she like-
wise was without scarring in her nether regions, but wasn’t especially anxious
to find out.
Sunara tilted her head slightly, looking sympathetic. “Ah.
Well, it was inevitable. How was your sleep, child?”
“What did... y o u d o t o m e ? ”
Sunara approached her, looking like she was gliding over the ground. She knelt
next to the bed, where Merrih lay helpless, and she reached out and touched
her face. Merrih trembled, but wasn’t entirely sure why. She supposed it
should have been from revulsion... a n d y e t she didn’t feel repulsed by
Sunara at all. Instead the touch was oddly com-
forting. Perhaps, she reasoned, that was why she trembled:
because she knew she should have been revolted, but wasn’t.
“Ohhhh, is that how you see things? That they are done to you? It sounds to me
as if you are content to think of your-
self as a victim. How tragic.”
“I . . . I’m not a victim.”
“No, you’re not,” Clarinda spoke up. “You are a blessed one. You have been
welcomed into our family by my mother,” and she smiled beatifically, “the
glorious Mistress
Sunara. You should be grateful.”
“I want to go home.”
“You are home,” Sunara said firmly.
“I’m a prisoner. I’m even... ” S h e t r i e d once more to move her limbs
but was unable to do so. “I’m even a pris-
oner in my own body.”
“My, how you do overdramatize. It’s a temporary paraly-
sis at worst, my dear. Your body is simply making...
a d j u s t m e n t s , s h a l l w e s a y... t o i t s n e w r e a
lity. Before you know it, you’ll be up and around. And maybe, just maybe,
you’ll be feeling a bit more generous toward your new brothers and sisters.”
She rose, stepping back and away from Merrih, and rested a hand gently on
her daughter’s
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PETER DAVID

shoulder. “Stay with Merrih, would you? Make her feel welcome. Make her feel
at ease. I know you can.”
“Thank you, Mother,” said Clarinda, and she bowed her head slightly. Sunara
patted her on the head as she would a faithful pet, and then glided
noiselessly out of the room.
Clarinda kept her expression of serene calm, and Merrih started to open her
mouth to say something. To Merrih’s surprise, though Clarinda still maintained

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her look of peace, there was something in her eyes that changed at that mo-
ment. The look of dutiful daughter evaporated, and she put a finger to her
pursed lips, indicating that Merrih should re-
main silent. Bewildered, Merrih did so, and then Clarinda tilted her head
slightly, craftiness and cunning in her eyes.
Understanding crept into Merrih’s mind. Clarinda was wait-
ing until she was sure that her mother was nowhere about.
The finger that she had used to indicate Merrih should be quiet she now had
raised in the air in a wait until I say it’s safe manner. Aloud, she said,
“The divine Mistress, my mother, is quite right. I should think that you would
be deliriously happy to be down here with us. What does your old life have
to offer you, really? You are a creature of dark-
ness, as am I. As are all of us. Yet you live above as if you’re s o m e t h i
n g y o u ’ r e n o t . Y o u r l i f e i s a l i e... s o w e l c
o m e t o the truth.”
Finally she lowered her hand and let out a heavy sigh.
“At last,” she said softly and knelt down next to Merrih.
“I thought she’d never leave. Okay, let’s try and move things along here.”
She slid her hands under Merrih’s right arm and began to flex it. At first
Merrih continued to feel nothing, but before long there was a faint tingling
in her fin-
gers. “You should be feeling something by now,” Clarinda informed her.
“Yes. Yes, I . . . I am. I do. Thank you.” She wiggled her fingers and nodded.
As foolish as it seemed, she was filled with relief that she was able to do
something as trivial and routine as that. She’d never felt so grateful for
something that she’d so taken for granted as her ability to move. “How did you
know I would be feeling anything?”
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131

“Oh, I have a certain sensitivity when it comes to blood.”
Merrih made a face. “Sensi . . . tivity...? ”
“I can smell it. Sense it. Hear it.” Clarinda smiled in the way that anyone
did who was discussing something near and dear to them. “I feel a little sorry
for you, really, that you can’t.” As she spoke, she had moved down to the
far end of the bed and picked up one of Merrih’s feet. It was huge in
Clarinda’s hands, but nevertheless she began mas-
saging it with expert efficiency.
“How can you... f e e l s o r r y f o r m e?” demanded Merrih.
“What you do... y o u r whole attraction to blood . . . it’s dis-
gusting. You’re... y o u ’ r e j u s t a p a r a s i t e... ”
“We all have blood, Merrih,” she sad with a trace of im-
patience. “Every one of the Twelve Races has it. It’s just about the only
thing we have in common, is blood. If more of the Twelve had a sense of that
bond which should be bringing us together, you wouldn’t see so many of us
trying to kill each other. You think
I’m disgusting? The most dis-
gusting thing on this Damned World is that we’re all con-
stantly plotting and scheming to commit genocide on each other. And for what?
Your toes.”
Merrih peered at her in confusion.
“Your toes, move your toes on your right foot.”
“Oh.” Merrih did as she was told and was pleased to see that there was
movement there once more.
Clarinda moved on to the other foot and began doing the same thing. “And for
what?” she continued as if she hadn’t interrupted herself. “For each other’s
land? There’s more than enough to go around. For riches? Fighting over trea
s-
ures and coins and glittering objects... i t ’ s p o i n t l ess. We do it

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for the most ridiculous reason of all: It’s what we’ve always done. What
ever the origins of our respective hostili-
ties, they’re buried with the corpses of ancestors genera-
tions back, and yet here we are, still acting as if there’s any reason we
should hate each other.”
“We hate your people because you keep eating us!”
“We keep eating you because you think we’re just ani-
mals and aren’t willing to help us out.”
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PETER DAVID

“Why should we help you out?”
“So we won’t keep eating you,” Clarinda said as if it was the most obvious
thing in the world.
Merrih tried to come up with a response but, to her sur-
prise, none immediately suggested itself. So she tried a dif-
ferent approach. “For someone who feels that we should all be working to get
on with one another and celebrates the notion of unity, you certainly don’t
seem particularly enam-
ored of your mother.”
“That,” Clarinda told her testily, “is another matter en-
tirely.”
“How is it another matter?”
“Because my mother . . .” Then she stopped speaking, continuing to massage
Merrih’s feet as she frowned. “Why should I trust you?”
“I don’t know. Why should I trust you?” responded Mer-
rih. “After all, you might be trying to lure me into some-
thing. Present yourself as a friend or ally, just so you can...
c a n... ”
“Can what?” she asked impatiently. “Trap you? You’re already down here. Sate
myself on you? Already done that as well.”
“ Y o u... y o u d i d?” Merrih felt faint. “You were... a n d t h e r e
w e r e o t h e r s... t h e y... ”
“You’re big,” Clarinda told her with a shrug. “We can feast on you and then
back off, and it can go that way for ages. You’re a large supply. You’ll
last.”
Tears began to coalesce at the edges of Merrih’s eye, and
Clarinda made an annoyed sound. “Oh, now, don’t start.”
“Well, what else am I supposed to do? You... y o u t e l l me these things,
and... I... I w a n t t o g o h o m e... ”
“So how is that my problem?”
“You can take me!”
Clarinda shook her head. “Too great a risk, too many ways watched, and
besides, why in the world should I?”
“Because it . . .” Merrih’s mind raced, and then inspira-
tion hit her. “Because it would infuriate your mother.”
“Well, that’s true.” Clarinda smiled slightly at that. She
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
133

stopped rubbing Merrih’s left foot and chuckled, the points of her teeth
showing through her amused grimace. “It would drive her insane. Gods. I’m so
sick of . . .”
“Sick of what?” Merrih prompted her.
Clarinda stared at her for a long moment, then glanced right and left as if
concerned that the walls themselves had eyes and ears. For all Merrih knew, in
the realm of Subter-
ror that was very much the case. Finally, apparently con-

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vinced that no one was spying on them, she leaned forward and spoke to Merrih
in low tones. “Sick of my mother lec-
turing me. Preparing me. ‘Shaping’ me, is what she calls it.
It’s just . . . it’s so infuriating. Beyond infuriating. She’s so pompous
about it, and so smug and full of herself, and the life she’s got laid out for
me, wanting me to be like her. Not even caring what I want or think. It’s
never even occurred to her to ask how I feel about . . . about . . .”
Merrih didn’t know what Clarinda was trying to say at first. And then some
deep instinct cued her to what it was that Clarinda was getting at. “About . .
. being mutilated?”
Clarinda looked at her in surprise, and then her face soft-
ened. Merrih couldn’t help but think that—as alien to her own standards of
beauty as Clarinda was—there was still, strangely enough, a certain degree
of attractiveness in the
Piri’s face. Perhaps her lack of revulsion was due to some sort of
psychological hold they had upon her. In feeding on her, they could have
affected her mind somehow. Certainly
Sunara had made inroads into her consciousness before, mucking with her,
confusing her, rendering her helpless.
Nevertheless, she still felt that her attitude toward Clarinda was genuine.
The Piri had a certain beauty that she, Merrih, might not have been able to
appreciate before, but could do so now.
“Yes. Exactly,” Clarinda said, and when she spoke it was while heaving a sigh
that sounded as if she were relieved to have someone she could confide in.
There were still pin-
pricks of suspicion in Merrih’s mind. Maybe this was all some grand ruse on
Clarinda’s part, engineered by Sunara.
More and more, though, she believed that was not the case.
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PETER DAVID

“How did you know, Merrih? Was I . . . obvious?” Concern flickered in her
eyes. “I hope to gods not. I wouldn’t want
M o t h e r t o k n o w... she couldn’t know... ”
“Your mother doesn’t know how you feel about her?”
“No, and I intend to keep it that way,” Clarinda said firmly. “You don’t know
her, Merrih. You’ve seen her with all her pretty words and her seductive ways,
but you don’t know how she can get. You haven’t seen her enraged. You don’t
want to, I can assure you. If she gets in a... c e r t a i n w a y... n o
one is safe. But yes, you were right. I mean... ”
She cupped her breasts, a move that Merrih found both dis-
turbing and yet . . . interesting. “They’re not much, I admit, but I’ve no
desire to see them hacked off.”
“Is such a thing... imminent?”
“No,” said Clarinda. “The ritual is not undertaken until the future Mistress
has mated and produced an heir. Then the previous Mistress oversees the
ritual. It’s all very for-
malized and stylized and treated like some sort of . . . grand celebration.
But I hate it. I hate the notion that the only way a Mistress can represent
both genders of Piri is to have no gender herself. It’s grotesque and unfair
and it’s... ” H e r voice choked. “It’s going to hurt. A lot.”
If the mighty Nagel, king of the Ocular, had ever told her that she would be
in a position where she’d feel pity for a
Piri, Merrih would have laughed in his eye. Yet that was ex-
actly how she felt now. All worries that Clarinda was engag-
ing in pretense or sham vanished.
“ D i d... d i d i t h u r t y o u r m o t h e r ? ”
“Of course,” Clarinda said, and she was no longer mak-
ing the slightest attempt to hide her disdain. “But Mother—

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I’m sorry, our beloved Mistress—says it was a cleansing pain. That she was
grateful for it, since it absolved her of all her sins and purified her for
the job she was to undertake.
Can you believe that nonsense?”
“I can believe that she believes it. So I wonder . . .”
“What do you wonder?”
“Well,” Merrih said, and she reached up and stroked her chin thoughtfully. In
doing so, she realized with great inner
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
135

joy that she was in fact able to make that gesture, and that more and more
control over her body was returning to her.
“Well, I just wonder . . . two things, really. First, if the idea is so
repulsive to you, why don’t you leave?”
“Leave and go where?” Clarinda snorted. “It’s not ex-
actly as if we Piri are welcomed throughout the Damned
World. Anywhere I would go, I would be hunted, feared, and despised. I doubt I
could find enough blood to survive, and that’s presuming that others of my
kind don’t track me down, find me, and drag me back here.”
“What if you came with me? I mean,” she said quickly when she saw Clarinda’s
incredulous look, “if you help me escape... c e r t a i n l y m y uncle,
the king, would welcome you into our home. Give you protection.”
“Don’t make me laugh,” replied Clarinda. “Protect me?
Sooner or later . . . and I’d be wagering on sooner . . .
someone in your home would dispatch me in my sleep.
And there would be much wailing and moaning and re-
criminations from your uncle, but secretly he’d be relieved, presuming he
hadn’t done it himself. I understand my choices, Merrih, even if you don’t. To
die whole . . . or live butchered.” She shook her head, radiating a sense of
hope-
lessness, and Merrih couldn’t exactly say that she was wrong to feel that
way. At length Clarinda glanced up at her and noted, “You said you were
wondering about two things. What is the other?”
“ O h... y es. You mentioned about giving birth to ‘only one heir’? What
happens if the heir dies before completing the cycle and creating a new heir
him- or herself.”
“Then the title of ‘Mistress’ is given to another, chosen from the ranks of
the Piri, and a new line is spawned. The line that my mother is a part of goes
back at least ten gener-
ations.”
“ A l l r i g h t . S o... s o what if . . . a potential future Mis-
tress were considered unworthy of the title? Has anything like that ever
occurred?”
Clarinda looked at her askance “I don’t know. Not to my knowledge, but . . .
why?”
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PETER DAVID

“Well, if you helped me escape, might not you be consid-
ered unworthy? Flying in the face of the desires of your mother, and the other
Piri . . . that may prompt them to think that you could never do a decent job
as Mistress, breastless or no.”
“And do what? Live with my people in a state of dis-
grace?”
Merrih shrugged (another movement restored to her). “For a while, I suppose.
But they would wind up getting another
Mistress, as you said, and in time they would forget. After all, it takes a

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great deal of effort to continue to despise someone.”
“How true. And yet,” Clarinda said dryly, “those who re-
side on the surface continue to expend that effort with little difficulty when
it comes to how our species, is viewed.”
“Fair enough,” Merrih admitted.
“Still . . .” Clarinda had risen from the bed and was now leaning against the
wall, tapping it idly with her long finger-
nails that almost looked like—and might indeed have been—
claws. “Still, it is an interesting notion that you suggest.
Self- serving, to be sure.”
“It serves me, but serves you as well,” Merrih pointed out. “The best deals,
alliances, and treaties in the world come from mutual self- interest,
wouldn’t you say?”
“Yes. Yes, I would.” Her eyes narrowed, but a genuine smile countered it. “I
shall have to give this thought, Ocular.
A good deal of thought. But it has... p o t e n t i a l , I h a v e t o
say.”
“Thank you,” Merrih said graciously. “I thought it did as well.”
Then Clarinda reached up and began massaging Merrih’s thigh. Merrih, who
should have shuddered in revulsion, in-
stead nestled her head in the pillow and sighed with con-
tented plea sure while Clarinda’s hands continued to work their way upward.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
137

THE CITY- STATE OF VENETS
Tulisia Sydonis, high lady of the Sirene in general and the
Merk in specific, had been exceptionally careful when she had chosen her
warlord, for she had had the foresight to look beyond the designation.
Traditionally “warlord” had been an honorary title, given to one who was
charged with keeping the peace and looking after the health and welfare of the
Sirene. He was not actually expected to wage war. As belligerent as the other
members of the Twelve Races could be, none of them had attempted to go head-
to- head with the Sirene.
There were the occasional threats: The chest thumping, the spear rattling.
But these were mostly for show, because the truth (or at least the truth as
Tulisia saw it) was that none other of the Twelve Races was insane enough to
stand against the Sirene. By the same token, there was lit-
tle advantage to the Sirene trying some manner of assault on the others of the
Banished.
Their respective environments served to keep them sepa-
rate. In order to attack the Sirene, a water assault would be necessary.
Although the Merk were not exactly what one would consider a formidable
fighting force, the Markene most definitely were. On the other hand, for the
Sirene to wage war against any of the others among the Twelve Races, they
would have to find a means of mounting a ground as-
sault, away from water for extended periods of time. The
Sirene biology made that problematic at best for the Merk, and an
impossibility for the Markene. The Merk required repeated immersion to
survive, and the Markene flat- out couldn’t move to any major degree out of
water.
So the other eleven races and the Sirene tended to eye each other hungrily,
driven by their nature to wage war, yet frus-
trated because their respective biologies made it unfeasible.

Nor were the remaining eleven foolish enough to sail their vessels anywhere
near Sirene territory, since the outcome would be both tragic and inevitable.
“Only one,” she said to her warlord, “crosses Sirene bor-

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ders with impunity. Just as they cross all borders with im-
punity.”
Tulisia’s warlord, whom she had handpicked, was named
Orin Arn Oran. For someone who was designated as war-
lord of the Sirene, he was not as powerful looking or im-
pressive at first glance as one would have thought. His body was compact; his
hair was wilted a bit because he was not the youn gest of Merk. Most
surprisingly of all, as opposed to the aggressive and bellicose nature that
one would have expected of a warlord, Orin Arn Oran was soft- spoken, his
eyes surprisingly gentle. In addition to the weedlike hair atop his head,
strands dangled from his chin as well, and he would occasionally absently wrap
these around his fingers in thought.
But Tulisia knew that his mild appearance, while not a sham, was not all there
was to him. She had seen Orin Arn
Oran in battle situations on the rare occasions when errant members of the
other races had been foolish enough to at-
tempt an assault upon the Sirene. There had never been any-
thing or ga nized, no troop movements aimed at the Sirene.
There were always foolish idiots, however, acting on their own and trying to
prove that no one—even the water- bred
Sirene—was impervious to attack.
When those occasions had arisen, it had been Orin Arn
Oran who had been the first one providing a line of defense for the city-
state of Venets. Those peaceful eyes had be-
come as violent and intense as the seas during a tempest. He had moved with an
efficiency and economy of movement that paradoxically made him seem as if he
was moving very s l o w l y... when, in fact, he was upon his opponent
before the enemy even knew what hit him.
He was also po liti cally savvy, careful and considered without being
cowardly . . . and, not entirely by coincidence, someone whom the lady Tulisia
found quite attractive and
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139

therefore wanted to keep in proximity. Whether he was aware of her interest or
not, he had yet to give any indica-
tion.
Tulisia had a small chamber that was entirely private and entirely hers. She
maintained it for occasions such as these: when she wanted to have
confidential meetings. She felt as if she were constantly under surveillance
from members of the court who were curious about her latest plans. Certainly
Ruark was the lord of Venets, but everyone knew where the true power was, so
they tended to hang on her every word, her every movement. It could be most
dis-
tracting.
The chamber had comfortable chairs filled with water, maintained inside clear
material called “plastic” that the
Morts had invented. The Sirene, having no more patience for such made- up
words than any other member of the Ban-
ished, simply called the material “clear stuff.” Tulisia lay back in her
chair, bobbing up and down, her hands resting in her lap with her fingers
interlaced. Orin Arn Oran sat op-
posite her, in a similar position, listening politely to her.
When he realized she was waiting for him to speak up, he said, “The Travelers,
you mean.”
“Yes. I mean the Travelers.”
“You wished to speak with me, milady... because you want to discuss the
Travelers?” Orin Arn Oran made no at-
tempt to hide his confusion, although he was at least cordial a b o u t i t .

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“ I m e a n... I a m honored, as always, to spend time with you. However,
I don’t exactly see the point. I mean, yes, the Travelers come and go as they
please. Their draquons cannot swim, that’s true, but they have very pow-
erful wind vessels that they use to sail through our territory, whenever and
wherever they wish. How is that anything that’s appropriate for us to
discuss?”
“I’m not interested in the appropriateness of it, Orin,”
she told him, leaning forward. A light of inner determina-
tion burned in her eyes. “I’m interested in the fact of it . . .
and in possibly changing that fact.”
He tried to pro cess what she was saying to him, but had
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PETER DAVID

no luck doing so. Shaking his head, he said, “I’m not fol-
lowing, milady. I’m sorry, I . . .”
“Just because the Travelers take us for granted... l o r d i t over us, act
as if they’re in charge... ”
“They are in charge,” he said matter- of- factly. “It’s not a theoretical
issue being debated. They are in charge, operat-
ing on behalf of the Overseer. Again, I don’t exactly see what it is you’re
suggesting.”
“Oh, you don’t,” she inquired in a challenging tone.
He continued to stare at her blankly. She was beginning to wonder whether she
had erred in her selection of warlord those many months ago. And then, at long
last, comprehen-
sion began to dawn upon him. She saw it in his eyes, in his demeanor. But it
was comprehension mixed with a sense of growing dread.
“ Y o u... cannot be serious,” he said.
“I have never been more so. I am curious, however, as to whether you fully
understand what—”
He leaned forward, his face practically in hers. It was a rudely intimate
posture for him to take with her, but it didn’t bother her. He spoke in a
hoarse whisper, not sim-
ply because he was trying to keep his voice down, but be-
cause something in his throat had tightened up. It was as if his own vocal
apparatus was trying to strangle him in or-
der to make certain he didn’t speak of such things. “You wish to challenge the
Travelers?” he demanded, his tone so soft that, even as close as they were,
she could barely hear him.
“Does the thought frighten you?”
“It bewilders me, milady. I would almost think you can not be serious. That
you are having some sort of jest.”
“I do not jest about the future of my people.”
“Nor do I,” said Orin Arn Oran firmly. “And the future of my people would be
in great jeopardy if you were allowed to proceed with this plan.”
“I don’t see why.”
Orin was rocked back in his chair, staring at her, his finned hands gripping
the soft arms of the chair. “You don’t
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141

see why? Milady... w e a r e speaking of the Travelers! To challenge them
is to challenge the Overseer himself!”
“And what of that?” she demanded indifferently.
“The power of the Overseer cannot be challenged!”
“Orin,” said Tulisia, rubbing her palms together briskly as if she were
warming to an interesting subject rather than discussing the potential

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annihilation of their race, “no great deed was every accomplished by those who
proclaimed it could not be done.”
“Then this deed will not be accomplished, and I will sleep soundly this
night,” shot back Orin Arn Oran. “How can you think such a thing is possible?”
“I do not know if it is possible,” she admitted. “What I’m saying is that I am
intrigued to find out. And if we do go for-
ward, I will be looking to you to oversee the operation.”
“I serve at your plea sure, as always,” he said between gritted teeth, “but I
am not inclined to risk the lives of my people simply to find out if some . .
. some notion that’s occurred to you is a viable one. Especially when I am
cer-
tain it isn’t.”
“You do not know it’s impossible.”
“It’s—”
“You do not know!”
she interrupted him fervently. “The only reason you believe the Overseer
cannot be challenged is because he never has been.”
“He never has been because he has the power to destroy anyone who does try.”
“So we’ve been taught! So we’ve been led to think! But we have not
witnessed it, not ever!”
“That is because his power has its origins beyond this sphere. You know that,
as do I, as does everyone else on the
Damned World. It would be suicide.”
“It would be intriguing.”
Apparently realizing he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Tulisia arguing the
matter from the point of view of the Overseer, he doubled back and returned to
the subject ofthe Travelers. “What you are suggesting, milady, in terms of
challenging the Travelers, I . . .” Then he paused and
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PETER DAVID

frowned. “Actually, I’m not entirely clear on exactly what it is that you’re
suggesting. To challenge the Travelers... a n y reasonable person would say
it is an act of madness... ”
“Are you saying, Orin Arn Oran, that I am mad?”
“I do not think you mad, milady, no. But the actions you suggest, on the other
hand... ”
To his obvious surprise, she laughed. It was light, almost girlish, as if they
were discussing matters of utter triviality, or he was a young swain offering
her airy vanities. “Oh, very deft, Warlord. How you do manage to draw a fine
line, seeking not to give offense.” Then she lapsed into silence for such a
long moment that Orin shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “How can you not be
frustrated?” she asked at last.
“Frustrated, milady? I don’t—”
She didn’t allow him to finish the sentence. “This . . .
Damned World... i s m o s t l y w a t e r , O r i n A r n O r an. You
must know that. While others of the races are restricted to their slabs of
land, we can go anywhere. Anywhere. We are the rightful rulers of this world,
not the Travelers and not the
Overseer. Yet they look down at us with contempt.”
“We do not know they do that—”
“Of course we do, Warlord,” she said bitterly. “We are exiles here, for
gods’ sake! Exiles from our own sphere!
Shunted here, unwanted, despised. Gathered up like so much refuse and dumped
here on the Damned World. Their contempt for us is what resulted in our being
here, so do not for an instant pretend that somehow that contempt is no
longer felt.”
“I . . . suppose it is, yes, milady,” Orin admitted.
“And does that not eat at you? Does it not sit like bile in your mouth?” She

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rose lithely from her chair, the water within sloshing about. “Does it not
make your heart cry out for justice? Don’t tell me you have not thought about
it. All of us think about it. It gnaws at our minds, at our souls, and we live
in fear. I simply have the courage to give voice to it.
You are our warlord. Why do you not have similar courage?”
Orin bristled at the challenge, as she knew he would.
“I have the courage, milady, as I think you know. I have
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
143

the courage to speak my mind and damned be the conse-
quences. But my concerns lay with my people, with the
Merk—”
“Ahhhh,” said Tulisia, and she turned quickly to face him, a look of
conspiratorial smugness on her face. “And now you cut to the heart of it, and
open a portal to my thoughts on the matter.”
“I don’t understand.”
She strolled around behind him. He began to rise from his chair but she rested
her hands upon his shoulders and gently pushed him back down again. “Your
people. The
M e r k . A s y o u j u s t s a i d... ”
“Yes, as I just said... ”
“And what of the Markene? Are they not part of our race?
Are they not as much Sirene as we?”
“Well, yes, of course,” Orin allowed. “They are of our race.
But—”
“But they are not our people. They are... what they are.”
“I would not have phrased it in that manner, milady, but that is fundamentally
correct, yes.”
She pivoted quickly on the balls of her feet and swung herself around so that
she was facing Orin, crouching down before him. She was quite close to him,
and he shifted in his chair, suddenly overwhelmingly aware of the nearness of
her. “They are unpredictable, the Markene, are they not?
Their minds addled by their precious Klaa. They barely know their heads from
their fins. They do what we tell them because all that matters to them is the
Klaa, the supply of which we control. They will attack for us. They will die
for us. They will even forget why they do such things for us. Is that not so?”
The full weight of what she was saying began to sink upon him. With a sharp
intake of breath, he said, “You . . .
mean to send the Markene after them?”
“Why not?” she said, shrugging carelessly. She rose once more, moving
lightly as always. “The movements of the
Travelers are not unknown to us. Their great vessels cruise through our waters
with regularity as they proceed from land
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PETER DAVID

to land, spying upon the Twelve Races and intervening where they see fit. So
what would be the outcome if a pod of the
Markene converged upon one of the Travelers’ vessels and assaulted it? Sank
it, if they could. If they succeed, then we know for a fact that the Travelers
are not remotely as invinci-
ble as they are believed to be. We parade their waterlogged carcasses for any
and all to see, displaying to all the Twelve
Races the clear supremacy of the Sirene. Our people will take the lead in
ridding the Damned World once and for all of the Overseer and his Travelers.
Or haven’t you noticed that we mightily outnumber them. It is only our own
fear and re-

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luctance to alter the way of things that keeps us where we are.”
“And if you’re wrong?” Orin Arn Oran asked intently.
Now he was on his feet as well, stroking the long weeds that hung from his
chin. “I mean, you have more than made it clear that you believe in your
vision of our future. But have you allowed for the possibility that the
reputation of the
Travelers is justified? What if they slaughter the Markene who assault them?
Will they not then seek retaliation against—”
“Against whom?” Tulisia said in wide- eyed surprise. Her voice trembled
like that of an innocent young girl. “Against us? But how were we to know
the Markene would do such a thing. You said it yourself: One would have to be
insane to think that the Travelers could be conquered. Why,” and she shook her
head sadly, as if relating the tale of a truly tragic fate which had overtaken
distant relatives, “those Klaa-
addled Markene must have come up with this ludicrous no-
tion entirely on their own. Who knows what was going through their heads?
Perhaps they mistook the Traveler ves-
sel for a large Klaa reef and therefore attacked it. They are but poor, dumb,
ungainly creatures that deserve our pity. I
am certain that the all- powerful Travelers would be most willing to accept
my apology for any incon ve nience they suffered thanks to the rogue actions
of a handful of pathetic
Markene.”
“ T h a t ’ s... ” H e shook his head in astonishment. “That
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
145

w a s... a s t o u n d i n g l y i m p r essive. I would never have k n o w
n... ”
“And neither would they,” Tulisia said firmly, dropping the pretense of the
young and abashed innocent. She reached over and took his hand. The gesture
was enough to freeze him in place. “It is a perfect plan, Orin Arn Oran.
We can be a great, shining beacon that will guide all our people. We will take
charge of this Damned World. We will be united, all of the Twelve, even though
the very fabric of our beings screams at us to indulge in futile interracial
feuding. And once united, who knows? Perhaps we will find a way to mount a
counterattack against our home sphere. Would that not be glorious? To be
shoved out as re-
fuse, but to return as conquerors? How stunningly deli-
cious would that be.”
“Very much so, milady. Very much so.”
She reached over to him and drew the palm of one hand slowly across his face.
He trembled at her touch and sucked in air sharply. “You will explore the
notion, will you not?
Quietly. Subtly. The Markene may be under my rule, but they are under your
command as our first, best line of de-
fense and offense against our enemies. You must make the plans. You must be
prepared to point them in the correct di-
rection so they will know where, when and how to destroy a group of Travelers.
And after that . . .”
“Our gods will smile upon us,” Orin Arn Oran said fer-
vently.
Tulisia Sydonis looked appropriately contemptuous of the notion. “For all the
times we’ve prayed to them and asked them for intervention, look at what
their smiles have afforded us. I am hoping the gods will smile upon the
Travelers. Let them be as damned to the depths as we . . . and they, at least,
cannot breathe water.”
She lowered her hand, turned, and walked away from
Orin Arn Oran. She looked regal and confident. Still . . .

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He could not entirely ignore the fact that she had just mocked the gods. And
Orin Arn Oran knew, from personal experience, that one mocked the gods at
one’s extreme
146
PETER DAVID

peril. The fact that Tulisia had done so split his mind. On the one hand, he
approved of her bravado. On the other hand, he couldn’t help but pray that
the gods just hadn’t no-
ticed her, lest the retribution be swift and brutal and...
worst of all . . . spill over upon whoever might be standing near her.
THE COUNTRY OF FEEND
i.
The scream of Nagel, king of the Ocular, echoed and rever-
berated throughout Castle Skops with such intensity that servants trembled and
hid, royal retainers feared for their lives, and Phemus, Nagel’s chief
advisor, worried for half a heartbeat that the castle itself would crumble
around their ears.
Once having ascertained that the structure was not, in fact, in any danger of
collapsing, Phemus hastened to the place where he knew that Nagel would be.
Sure enough, Nagel was within his study, as he had been from the night that
Merrih had been kidnapped by the Piri. Books were everywhere, and the
clutter was horrifying to Phemus. Not that he gave a damn about the mess, the
disor ga ni za tion, or the lack of respect being paid toward leftover
Mort arti-
facts. What worried him was that he knew full well that to
Nagel these were major concerns. They always had been.
He’d treated these dusty tomes as if they were holy relics, and had been
fastidious in his care for them. So Phemus was extremely alarmed to find them
tossed about as if a great windstorm had blown through the room.
Standing in the midst of the room, hands balled into fists, his head tilted
back, bellowing an agonized scream that
Phemus could only define as pure frustration, was Nagel.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
147

Directly in front of him was an Ocular whom Phemus im-
mediately recognized as a royal messenger. The poor bas-
tard was on his knees, his arms crossed over his head in a vain attempt to
shield it, as if he was concerned that Nagel was about to smash his skull in
with a club or perhaps just step on his head and crush it, grinding his brain
between his toes.
“Nagel!” Phemus cried out, dispensing with his usual honorifics. “Nagel, what
has—”
“That bitch!”
Nagel shouted. He looked ready to smash apart the furniture, turned, and
punched the wall, chipping a few pieces out of it.
“What . . . ?” Phemus looked around, trying to figure out who Nagel was
referring to. The trembling messenger was h a r d l y a f e m a l e . “ M e
r r i h...? ” h e v e n t u r e d .
Nagel turned and fixed the gaze of his single eye upon him. “Don’t be an
idiot!” thundered Nagel. “Not Merrih!
Never Merrih! She is an innocent victim in all this. No, it’s
Eurella! That bitch, that . . . that heartless—” He took aim at the messenger
and swung a booted foot. Seeing it coming at the last instant, the messenger
let out a terrified yelp and rolled out of the way so that the damage he
sustained was minimal.
Immediately it all became clear to Phemus, and he won-

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dered why he hadn’t realized it sooner. “You sent this mes-
senger to Eurella, the Trull queen. And she returned tidings that were not
to your liking.”
“Do I look like they were to my liking?”
The messenger looked up at Phemus with a silent, terrified plea in his eye.
Protocol dictated that the messenger could not depart until he was given leave
to. Nagel was too caught up in his rage to do so, and clearly the messenger
was worried that
Nagel was going to kill him in his towering anger. Phemus gave a hurried
gesture, and that was close enough as far as the messenger’s sense of
etiquette was concerned. He stumbled to his feet and bolted from the room.
Nagel’s back was to him. He was too busy shouting out the window. Phemus could
only imagine what must have been going through the
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PETER DAVID

minds of any Ocular below within hearing range, down in the darkness.
Certainly they would be saying that the mighty
Nagel had gone mad with grief. They would not be entirely wrong.
“I should have killed her! I should have killed that harri-
dan years ago! Not a shred of compassion in her bones, not one! Either of her
sons would be an improvement over—”
Nagel turned and his head snapped around. “Where did he go?” he demanded.
“The messenger? I gave him leave to depart,” Phemus said judiciously.
“Gave him leave! You cannot give him leave! Only I can do so!” Nagel was
radiating cold, implacable fury, and he began to advance on Phemus.
For the first time in his career as an advisor, Phemus gen-
uinely feared for his life. Nagel had been seized by a pow-
erful rage that had near to made him mad, and it was entirely possible that he
would annihilate Phemus before coming to his senses. Phemus, however, did not
back down, nor allow to be seen the slightest hint of intimidation. Mes-
sengers might cower upon the ground, fearing the wrath of the One- Eyed
King, but he would not follow that route.
“I allowed him to take leave of the room, since you have clearly taken leave
of your senses,” Phemus told him, his tone of voice as stiff as his back.
Nagel took two quick steps, and in that moment, Phemus was convinced that
Nagel was going to reach over and snap his neck like a dried twig. Nagel’s jaw
twitched, his eye glowered. There were so many emotions roiling within his
unblinking orb that, had there been a sailing vessel within, it would have
sunk in no time.
Then, his voice sounding strangled, Nagel managed to s a y , “ I t i s... p
r obably better that you did.”
He turned away from Phemus, presenting his back, and the royal advisor
abruptly realized that he had been holding his breath. He let out an unsteady
sigh and watched the king begin to pace, kicking books aside as he did so.
“The Trulls were the most logical race to help us, Phemus. Who else
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
149

among the Twelve can dig the way they do? They could root out the Piri for us
in no time. They have digging machines, tools. They have the tech. So I send a
messenger to Eurella, and what does she say?”
“She says,” Phemus told him with certainty, “that she re-
grets the actions taken by the Piri. That she regrets Merrih has been taken.
However, the official posture of the Trull is neutrality and to ser vice all
sides equally. She will not pro-
vide us with the weaponry required to dispose of the Piri once and for all . .
. unless, of course, we desire her to pro-

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vide weaponry for the Piri to eliminate us once and for all.
Normally they will not deal with the Piri, but to forestall genocide, she
would be forced to make an exception.”
“You know her all too well,” Nagel said ruefully. “I
don’t understand her thinking.”
“The Piri are one of the Twelve.”
“They are one of the Twelve but in technicality only!”
Nagel protested. “In reality, they are little more than ani-
mals! If we dealing with an animal infestation, would Eu-
rella suffer the animals to live? I think not!”
“I think not as well, my king, but Eurella is unpre-
dictable. The truth is, she might indeed suffer the animals to live. None know
Eurella’s mind.”
“I wouldn’t be willing to wager she has a mind at all,”
Nagel said. His anger was rising once more and it took a visi-
ble effort for him to keep it in check. Having nowhere else to place it, he
turned and kicked over an entire table. It crashed to the floor. Phemus winced
at the noise, and was about to scold
Nagel firmly, albeit respectfully, but Nagel didn’t look as if he would
listen. Instead he sagged to the ground, shaking his head wearily. “What sort
of king am I,” he said with tragedy lacing his words, “who cannot even keep
his niece safe, or his people safe? My father—”
“Your father could not have done more than you.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
Phemus paused and then said, “Perhaps the Man—”
“No.”
“The Mandraques, my king, if you’d only—”
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PETER DAVID

“On his deathbed
, Phemus!” Nagel said angrily, waving a finger in Phemus’s face. “On his
deathbed, one of the last things my grandfather said to me was ‘Don’t trust
the Man-
draques.’ The look in his face, the intensity . . . he was trying to—”
“To carry on a hatred that has long—”
“He was trying to sear into me a lesson that he was con-
vinced would save not only my life, but the entirety of our country!” Nagel’s
rage was so fervent that Phemus immedi-
ately stepped back to give him room. “Because he knew that at some point in
the future there would be someone like you who would try to convince me to
give the Mandraques a toehold in Feend!”
“I am trying to convince you of no such thing, Nagel,”
Phemus shot back, although he made no threatening move.
“I am simply trying to tell you that you should consider all your options.”
“Asking the Mandraques for help is not an option,” Nagel said firmly. He
turned his back to Phemus and leaned against a wall. Phemus initially thought
of pressing him on the matter, but then simply chose to remain quiet and wait
for Nagel to continue speaking. After a long silence, Nagel leaned down and
picked up one of the fallen books. As was the case with most of the Mort
texts, it looked remarkably small in his powerful hands. Phemus wondered how
Nagel could even manage to page through it. “We so underesti-
mate the Morts, you know. It’s all in here.”
“ A l l i n...? ” P h e m u s shook his head. “I don’t under-
stand, my king.”
“The Morts had a device. A device of legendary power,”
and he waved the book around. “A device that, if used prop-
erly, could solve all my problems. Rid us of the Piri. Change to our advantage
the very nature of the land that we live in.

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Then again,” and with a heavy sigh he tossed the book onto a table, “for all I
know, the power is legendary because the device itself is merely the stuff of
legend, rather than reality.
Who knows? It’s always difficult to tell with the Morts. They wrote texts of
utter fabrication, did you know that?”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
151

“I did not,” Phemus said.
“It’s true. I have some here,” and he picked up a couple of books from the
floor, placing them back in their shelves.
The floor was still a terrible mess, but he was making some feeble attempts to
restore order. “Hard to tell what was truth with the Morts and what was
fiction. Then again, I suppose that’s to be expected, considering how many of
their fic-
tions stemmed from the fact of our ancestors’ existence.
Bastardized, of course, for the entertainment of the reading public. They
called our kind ‘cyclops,’ did you know that?
They had names for most of us, although none of the names were wholly
accurate.”
“I was actually aware of that, yes,” Phemus assured him.
“The Mandraques,” Nagel said abruptly, “betrayed us.”
“Not exactly, my king.”
“Are you denying—?”
“I deny nothing. What I am saying is that it was, in fact, the ancestors of
Mandraques who betrayed our people’s an-
cestors. That early betrayal has been more than enough to sustain the
hostility between our people and the Man-
draques.”
“There is hostility because the Mandraques would just as soon kill someone as
look at them,” said Nagel. “And con-
sidering they oftentimes have done just that, I’d say that’s a valid enough
reason, wouldn’t you?”
“Then what will you do, my king?”
“I don’t know yet,” said Nagel with mounting frustration.
“I need to develop a plan that’s actually workable. One that has no inherent
negatives.”
“I don’t know that you’ll find one. Consider, though, that an alliance with
the Mandraques... ”
“And even if I were to take that step,” Nagel challenged, “what then? The
Mandraques are smaller than us, true.
What race isn’t? But your suggestion, I assume, is that they would go into the
labyrinths after the Piri.” When Phemus nodded, Nagel continued, “They may
still be too big for the job. They are larger than the Piri. If Mandraque
warriors be-
come trapped down there, our call for help—the alliance
152
PETER DAVID

that you propose—may simply result in more captured sus-
tenance for the Piri. We may be sending them their next year’s worth of meals!
Did you consider that?”
“I did,” Phemus said. “And there is something that you have not considered.”
He didn’t pause to allow Nagel to guess what that might be but instead
continued, “Mandraque children.”
Phemus wasn’t quite sure how Nagel would react to that, but he certainly
wasn’t expecting Nagel to begin laughing uproariously. The king held his
stomach as if he were con-

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cerned that his innards were going to spill out and collect at his feet.
“You’re not serious!” he finally managed to say.
“Mandraque children are vicious, my king.”
“They’re children!”
“They are vicious,” repeated Phemus. “In some regards, more so than the
adults. Mandraques are ready to fight from the moment they’re hatched. In
fact, in any Mandraque lit-
ter, at least two or three of the smaller ones wind up being killed and
eaten.”
“That much I can believe.”
“By the time they approach adolescence, they are as vi-
cious and deadly as they’re going to be upon achieving full growth,” Phemus
continued. “The only thing that changes is that, as they grow, they become
stronger. But one doesn’t need all that much strength to kill Piri. One only
needs de-
termination, numbers, and the ability to break their necks like so many
branches.”
“You’re telling me,” Nagel said in wonderment, “that we should approach the
Mandraques with the idea that they should provide us with a number of their
children in order t o w i p e o u t t h e P i r i ? A n d t h e y w o u
l d d o t h i s... w h y ? O u t of the goodness of their hearts?”
“They would do it because Mandraques historically have never needed a reason
to fight. Just a when and where. You tell them you wish to make use of their
children in a battle situation, and the odds are that they will consider it a
posi-
tive learning experience. I mean,” he added in exasperation, “what else is
there? Our own children? Perhaps we should
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153

just tell our people that all Ocular children are to be con-
scripted, trained in the ways of war, and sent into the cav-
erns to root out the Piri. I somehow doubt our people would embrace the idea,
don’t you?”
“I . . .” Nagel shook his head, sagging into a chair. “I
m u s t t h i n k o n t h i s . I m e a n... I h e a r y o u r w o r
ds, honored
Phemus. I even see the wisdom with which they are layered.
But you are asking... a g r e a t deal. All my life, I have known that
the Piri must not be feared, lest we give in to fear, and the Mandraques are
not to be trusted, lest we leave o u r s e l v e s v u l n e r a b l e... ”
“We are vulnerable, Nagel . . .
to the Piri,” Phemus said.
He rested a hand on Nagel’s sagging back. “My king...
you have not slept. You have not eaten. I beg you... d o t h e latter, then
the former.”
“I can’t sleep. I keep envisioning Merrih. I see her being pulled down into
darkness and despair, and I don’t know how to help her.”
“Yes, you do,” Phemus insisted. “The only question is:
Will you?”
Finally, Nagel nodded wearily. “I will eat something.
Then I will sleep. And then I will decide.”
“I know that you will make the best decision possible, one that is best for
our people.”
ii.
Nagel sat in the study, staring at the disarray for long min-
utes after Phemus had departed.
“The Mandraques,” he sighed, shaking his head. He hated to say it, but Phemus
had made a convincing case. And Phe-

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mus was his most trusted advisor, just as he had been for his father. What
choice did the young king have but to depend upon the words of such a learned
individual?
He could have assigned someone to put the books back and restore some order to
the place, but Nagel couldn’t bring himself to do that. He had, in his rage,
been responsible for
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PETER DAVID

this havoc. So it seemed reasonable that he be the one to attend to it.
He gathered books together and placed them on the shelves, but his mind wasn’t
really on his work. Instead he was envisioning poor Merrih in the clutches of
those ani-
mals, unable to get her out of his mind. He might be able to conscript
children of the Ocular, yes, but he would know-
ingly be sending at least some, if not all, to their deaths. He knew that such
decisions were an inevitable part of being a leader. Could he make such
decisions? He was beginning to wonder if he was capable of it, or—
That was when he noticed something on the stone wall behind one of the
shelves. Typically, books obscured the wall from view. With all the books out
of the shelves, light was cast onto it, and he saw that one of the stones was
pro-
truding a bit from the others.
“That’s odd,” he muttered, and he pushed against the stone to try and shove it
back into place. The stone moved easily, and he was startled by the sounds of
unseen gears grinding against one another. He stepped back, looking around in
confusion, and then gasped as the wall rotated in-
ward.
Stunned into silence, Nagel hesitated only a moment and then stepped through
into darkness. Naturally he could see perfectly and he looked around the
chamber that stood newly revealed by the moving wall.
There were more books inside, and what appeared to be a writing table. A
book sat upon it, a writing implement next to it.
Disappeared behind the stacks of books.
His words floated back to him, and Nagel was amused at his own credulity. He’d
tried to piece together the recollections of his youth and realized now that
he couldn’t have been more wrong. His father hadn’t been behind stacks of
books; he’d been behind the wall itself. This was some sort of hidden
sanctuary where his father had sought privacy, an escape from the world around
him. Nagel instantly felt a greater bond with his father than he’d ever known,
considering the
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
155

number of times that Nagel had likewise wished he could get away from the
responsibilities that bore down upon him with crushing weight.
He went to the book, open on the stand, half- expecting to discover more
Mort scribblings upon it. He was instead amazed to discover that it was Ocular
writing. “A journal,”
he breathed. It was some sort of journal that his father had kept. For a
heartbeat he considered closing it without read-
ing a word of it. It was intrusive, invading his father’s pri-
vacy in such a manner. Then he realized he was being ridiculous. His father
was long gone, and his “rights” with him.
He paged through it and began to read with mounting ex-
citement. His father had never been the most “giving” of in-
dividuals, and so Nagel hoped that he would be able to glean something of the
way his father’s mind worked from these writings.

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And slowly his enthusiasm began to diminish, to be re-
placed by a building sense of rage. The words seemed to fly at him from all
directions, arrows aimed at his heart, his soul . . .
I blame our son’s mother for his weakness of spirit. Against all my wishes,
she has coddled him, encouraged him to think far too much about matters of
importance. I do not k n o w h o w N a g e l c a n e v e r l e a d...
He spends far too much time with that sister of his. I be-
gin to wonder if there is not something unhealthy in their time together...
Took my son hunting today. He displayed no taste for it.
He despises the notion of taking life. A ruler cannot be in-
sensitive to such matters, but he has yet to realize that the lives of his
subjects—be they animals or Ocular—are in his hands, to take or spare as he
pleases. And it is not his abil-
i t y t o s p a r e t h a t c o n c e r n s m e...
I do not trust Phemus. He speaks of forming alliances with those who I am
convinced would destroy us. His words are soaked in honey but I believe the
intent behind them to
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PETER DAVID

be sour. There are times I think I am standing in the way of his priorities.
Either he, or one of his operatives. Phemus is very wise in that regard. No
one should put himself at risk when he can use agents to do his bidding. I may
have to have him disposed of before he presents a serious danger to me or my
line. Would that I had someone to talk to about this. Would that I had a son
in whom I felt I could confide.
But I can trust no one. Not the children of my seed nor the wife of my bed. No
one...
The mother of Phemus has died, but not before telling me a very interesting
tale. I have hinted to Phemus that I
know. He denies it all, of course. I shall explore this in more detail before
deciding how to proceed...
Not feeling well this eve ning. I wonder if Phemus
There had been more. Pages and pages and pages more, packed with suspicion and
frustration and a growing sense of isolation. The line about not feeling well
had been the last, and it had been left frustratingly incomplete. Nagel sat
there, staring at the name “Phemus” simply hanging there. That, combined with
hints of some “secret,” was mad-
dening.
He felt shocked, mortified, angered. Dozens of emotions warred within him. He
had no idea how long he had been in there, paging through his father’s
journal, but it felt like a lifetime. A lifetime during which he was examining
his own lifetime, raging silently against his father’s perception of him and
knowing he would never be able to confront him.
He closed the book, resisting the temptation to tear it to shreds. Then he
stepped out of the room and pulled back on the brickwork. The hidden chamber
obediently obscured it-
self once more.
Nagel then replaced the books, dwelling on everything his father had written.
Then he summoned a retainer, who came promptly and waited expectantly for his
king to com-
mand him.
“Prepare an escort,” he said. “I’m embarking on a jour-
ney.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
157

“Where, O king?” inquired the retainer.

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The Nagel he had been before he walked into the cham-
ber would have replied immediately. But now he envisioned the retainer
immediately going straight to Phemus and re-
peating everything word for word. The spider of suspicion about his advisor
had crawled into his heart and was busy spinning a web within.
“None of your damned business,” snapped Nagel. “Do as
I order.”
The retainer looked startled and then said quickly, “Yes, O king.” He ran off
to do as he had been bidden.
Nagel wished at that moment that his father was there so he could see, with
pride, how Nagel was about to take ac-
tion, and so that he could seek his father’s blessing. Or his father’s life.
He wasn’t sure which was more important to him at the moment.
FIREDRAQUE HALL, PERRIZ
Eleven races that walked or swam or crawled upon the
Damned World quaked in fear of the Travelers.
One race did not. That race was the Firedraques. They were the smallest in
number of the Twelve Races and yet, despite that—or perhaps because of
that—they were among the most formidable. They feared very little in
general, and not the Travelers in par tic u lar.
They only feared the Overseer.
And Nicrominus of the Firedraques did not even fear him.
Since Nicrominus knew very little of the Overseer, and not all that much more
about the Travelers, he considered both of them merely subjects about which to
learn. This separated him from many of his brethren and most of the other
races, for others saw that which they knew nothing
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PETER DAVID

about as something to be afraid of, rather than a challenge to study.
So when word reached Nicrominus that half a dozen (or more, or possibly fewer)
Travelers were visible upon the horizon and riding straight toward
Firedraque Hall, he did not display any outward concern. All he said was
“Hunh” in a manner that indicated he found the news interesting and
unexpected, but nothing especially daunting.
Xeris, on the other hand, was more than daunted. “Pre-
ceptor,” he said urgently, “we must get you to safety!”
At first his urgent plea didn’t register on Nicrominus.
Nicrominus was in the middle of eating his mid afternoon snack, delicately
pulling apart the small winged creature on his plate. It struggled feebly and
let out a pathetic chirp right before he bit the head off, and crunched it
between his pow-
erful teeth. Nicrominus extended his tongue, running along the edges of his
lips, not wanting to leave embarrassing feathers sticking to his maw. He
looked up in polite confu-
sion at Xeris and inquired, “Safety? From what?”
“The Travelers! Have you not heard!” Xeris came around the table and knelt
near his mentor. “They are approaching!
They will be here shortly! There’s no time to waste!”
“And yet,” sighed Nicrominus, “here you are wasting mine. I am getting far too
old to run from things, Xeris. It is unseemly, to say nothing of being a waste
of time since what ever might be chasing me is more than likely to catch me.
What would you have me do?”
“At least make the effort! You have no idea what they in-
tend for you!”
“But if I flee, how will I find out?”
“Preceptor!” Xeris scarcely knew what to say. He fum-
bled around, searching for the words that would impart to
Nicrominus some mea sure of the situation’s gravity. “How can you not ...? ”

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“Not what?”
“Not care!”
Nicrominus reached over and patted the top of Xeris’s hand in a paternal
matter. “Of course I care, Xeris. However, DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
159

that which I care about isn’t remotely the same as what you care about.” He
upended the plate and dumped the bird bones into a nearby receptacle. He
carefully put the plate back on the table. His long, elegant tongue snapped
out several times, clearing off the few remains of food upon the plate. “I
care about learning, first and foremost. As my student, I should think that
you would share that predilec-
tion. When faced with the unknown, the coward runs from it, while those who
desire learning and knowledge run to-
ward it.”
“Fools run toward danger as well,” Xeris reminded him, “for they don’t know
any better.”
When he replied, his voice was surprisingly deep and angry, his brow scowling.
“Are you implying that I am a fool?”
Xeris gulped deeply and then, steeling himself, said, “In some situations, in
some things... y es, you can be a fool. Particularly when it comes to issues
of your personal safety.”
Nicrominus looked appalled that the subject even re-
quired debating, so clear to him was the course of action.
He puffed his cheeks out several times as he usually did when he was worked up
about something. “My personal safety means nothing to me. Less than nothing.”
“Have you considered, Preceptor, that it means some-
thing to me? Or to your daughter? When she returns from her visit to the
borderlands, how do you think she will re-
spond if you are... a r e... ”
“Dead?” Nicrominus, having thoroughly cleaned his plate, slid it aside, and
placed his hands, long fingers inter-
laced, upon the table. “She will very likely say that I died as
I lived: unafraid in the quest for knowledge. I had thought, Xeris, that you
shared that same thirst to know as much as possible.”
“I do, Preceptor, but not at the cost of your life while un-
der my watch.”
“Then tell me truly, Xeris... i s t h i s a b o u t m y l i f e ? O r
your supposed inability to protect it?”
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PETER DAVID

Before Xeris could respond, several floors below the mighty doors of the hall
slammed open. There were distant cries of shock and fear and supplications
for the gods to preserve them. Nicrominus had found that such entreaties
rarely if ever worked. The gods seemed to enjoy turning a deaf ear to the
needs of those on the Damned World. The fact that they were on the Damned
World to begin with cer-
tainly indicated that the gods were not sympathetic.
“It would seem,” Nicrominus said softly, “that the matter is moot. You may
leave me, Xeris.”
Xeris’s chin quavered, and then he drew himself up, squaring his shoulders. He
turned defiantly to face the door of the chamber, his tail whipping back and
forth. “They shall have to come through me to get you, Preceptor.”
“Truthfully, I’m thinking they won’t. But the fault is mine, Xeris. I was
unclear. When I said you may leave me, that was not me putting forward an
option. You will do so, now. This is my business, and the business of the
Overseer and his agents. You do not enter into it. And so help me, Xeris,” he

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continued speaking over Xeris’s attempt to inter-
rupt him, “if I catch you keeping nearby, listening in, or try-
ing to insert yourself into this, I will personally see to your chastisement.
It will not be a pleasant affair, I assure you.
Now get gone with you.”
Xeris looked for a moment as if he were going to en-
deavor to argue, but ultimately thought better of it. Instead he bowed stiffly
and then exited the room through the far door. Nicrominus, his attention no
longer split between the approaching Travelers and the petulant Xeris, turned
to the main door of the chambers and waited patiently.
He did not have long to wait.
A chill moved through the room, radiating from the door, like an icy fog
rolling in from a far- off ocean. Nicrominus shivered inwardly, but
outwardly he was the picture of dis-
tant calm.
He had spoken brave words to Xeris, had talked of his desire for knowledge and
how that superseded all other con-
siderations. Now, though, faced with the reality of possibly
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
161

impending doom, his thoughts were in turmoil and he was wondering whether
Xeris had not been right all along. Per-
haps he should indeed have fled when he had the chance.
Lived to fight another day, to see his daughter once more.
With his potential demise at the front door, departing out the back began to
seem the preferable option.
“Too late now,” he murmured, just as the door smashed open. He braced
himself.
A Traveler was in the doorway, and he did not seem to stand so much as hover.
There were others visible behind him. They were speaking to one another,
but it sounded more like random, hoarse sighs than anything approaching
language as Nicrominus knew or understood it.
The Traveler was dressed in billowing robes that, from a distance, always
appeared black. That was the way
Nicrominus had always espied them before: from a dis-
tance. It had always been more than sufficient for him. Now, though, with them
near, he was interested to note that the robes were not truly black, but
instead extremely dark pur-
ple. A purple hood was drawn up, making it difficult to see the Traveler’s
face clearly. This suited Nicrominus quite well, since some degree of
superstitious dread convinced him that to see the unhidden face of a
Traveler would be tantamount to instant death. What he was able to make out,
however—the chin, the lower half of his face—was glitter-
ing silver, smoother, than Nicrominus had ever seen. The
Traveler did not look like any one of the Twelve Races that walked the Damned
World, or—for that matter—even from the great beyond where the Twelve
Races originated.
The Traveler merely stood there for a long moment, and then slowly he entered
the room. His billowing cloak swirled around him, although the origin of the
winds that were moving it were a mystery to Nicrominus. It made it difficult
for Nicrominus to get any real idea of how the
Traveler was built, what his body type was.
“Greetings,” said Nicrominus. “This is an honor.”
“Is it?” The Traveler spoke with a flat voice that had a faint echo to it. It
sounded unnatural to Nicrominus, soul-
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PETER DAVID

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less, as if the Traveler were somehow not even alive. But that obviously
could not be the case, for here he was, and he was clearly speaking and
living.
“Of course it is,” Nicrominus said easily, hiding the anx-
iety that roiled within him. “What else would it be?”
The Traveler made no reply.
Nicrominus had no idea what to say. So he simply sat there and said nothing,
reasoning that silence was prefer-
able to foolish nattering. For all he knew, the Traveler was assessing the
best way to kill him. It made no sense for the
Traveler to do so, but the gods moved in mysterious ways, and the Travelers
were about as close to gods as it got on the
Damned World.
Then the Traveler glided forward and Nicrominus braced himself. The Traveler
reached deep into the hidden folds of his robe.
A weapon. He is about to hurl a weapon at me!
Nicrominus wanted to throw himself flat behind his desk, or perhaps even come
out attacking and roaring defiance. In-
stead he just sat there, unmoving.
The Traveler extended his hand, which was clad in a leath-
ery black glove, and he was holding something in the palm.
Nicrominus leaned forward, curious in spite of himself.
“A hotstar,” he said after a moment. He looked up ques-
tioningly, uncertain he’d given the correct answer. The fact that it was a
hotstar was obvious, so obvious that he won-
dered what was to be gained by showing him one. “We do not have much in the
way of tech here,” he continued, since the Traveler was making no effort to
fill in the silence. “So hotstars are not high on our priorities. Our
vehicles are powered by them, but other than that . . .”
Placing the hotstar upon the table, the Traveler took a step back and said,
“Look at it.”
“Look at it,” repeated Nicrominus, uncomprehending.
He started to reach for it, hesitated, glanced at the Traveler to see whether
he was doing something precipitous. But the
Traveler simply stood there, so with a shrug, Nicrominus picked up the
hotstar. He turned it over and over in his hand, wondering what it was he was
supposed to be seeing.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
163

Then he realized that it wasn’t a matter of seeing so much as it was a matter
of feeling. And he wasn’t feeling any-
thing. Not a damned thing. Hotstars were never scalding, but the warmth that
radiated from them was part of what lent them their distinctive name. This
hotstar had nothing.
He studied it more closely as if truly seeing it for the first time. Another
characteristic of hotstars was the small sparkles of light that danced within
their center. They were not reflections of outside illumination, but instead
origi-
nated from deep within, emanations from the power that the hotstars possessed.
“This is dead,” Nicrominus said, squinting in hopes of finding something that
he was missing. “There are no inner lights, no fire within. This hotstar has
gone dead. I did not think it was possible for hotstars to be drained.”
“It’s not,” the Traveler told him.
“Ah. So this,” and he waved the hotstar, “would be con-
s i d e r e d... what? An aberration?”
“No.”
“What, then?”

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“A possible trend,” said the Traveler in his unwavering voice.
Nicrominus rocked back in his chair as if punched in the face. “Although, as I
said, we here in Firedraque Hall have little use for such things... o t h e
r s depend upon hotstars v e r y h e a v i l y . H o t s t a r s , t h e
y... t h e y h a v e a l w a y s been a source of boundless energy. Have
they all r u n o u t...? ”
The Traveler shook his head. “This is the only one so far,” he said in the
longest sentence he’d formed since he’d arrived. Nicrominus did not feel any
sense of relief upon hearing that pronouncement, as he correctly surmised what
the Traveler’s next words were going to be. “The
Overseer believes there will be more.”
“But why?”
“We have not been told.”
Nicrominus was unsure whether the “we” referred to the
Travelers in general, or if this one was simply referring to himself in an
imperial manner. But that was a minor matter
164
PETER DAVID

at best. Finally Nicrominus put the impotent hotstar care-
fully down upon the table and said, “What does the Over-
seer want of me?”
“Learn why,” the Traveler told him.
It took a moment for Nicrominus to comprehend. “Learn w h y... t h i s h o t
s t a r has gone dead? Why others are at risk?
I s... t h a t what you are telling me?”
“Yes.”
Dumbfounded, Nicrominus stood. “But why me? What possible expertise do I—do
any of the Firedraques—have in such matters? Certainly our resources cannot
compare to that which the Overseer has at his command.”
“Learn why” was all the Traveler said.
He turned and started to walk away from Nicrominus, leaving the stunned
Firedraque there with the useless hot-
star. Trying to find some means of grasping the situation, Nicrominus asked,
“Is there a time frame involved? When does the Overseer desire me to provide
him an answer?”
The Traveler paused a moment in the doorway. Without turning back to face
Nicrominus, he intoned, “Before it is too late.” As he moved forward, his
similarly clad and eerily silent brethren closed in around him, obscuring him
from view. As one, the Travelers headed away. Nicrominus could practically
feel the chill air moving out of the room, follow-
ing them. He moved quickly to the nearest window and looked out. Sure enough,
moments later, the Travelers were riding their draquons away from the hall.
The powerful creatures moved with a sound like rolling thunder. The streets of
Perriz were deserted as the Travelers careened through the streets. There
was no doubt in Nicrominus’s mind that the Travelers would have run over
anyone or any-
thing in their way.
Nicrominus picked up the hotstar, regarded it thought-
fully, and wondered whether the Overseer would accept “I
don’t know” as a reasonable answer, and had the feeling that he most likely
would not.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
165

THE FIVE CLANS BORDERLANDS
i.
Zerena Foux could not recall the last time she had uttered a thanks of any

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sort to the gods. But she did so when the jumpcar roared to life, the hotstar
powering it once more.
She had tapped the hotstar several times, seeking to make sure that the energy
couplings were secure. All the energy in the world that the hotstar might
possess wouldn’t make a damned bit of difference if it couldn’t be fed
properly into the jumpcar’s engine.
The jumpcar had carried them successfully away from the battle plain of
Marsay, and they had made camp near the outer edges of the Mandraque
“borderlands,” so called since the lands of all five clans were accessible
from that par tic u lar point: a five- minute walk in any direction. The
Bottom Feed-
ers generally considered it a good place to catch their breath and plan their
next move, particularly since the borderlands themselves were neutral
territory. Cross over into any of the lands themselves and you were on the
turf of specific Man-
draque clans. But remain judiciously at the outer rim and none would do you
harm. That was the theory, at least. There was always the chance of running
into a Mandraque or Man-
draques who had no appreciation for the concept of neutral territory or
borders. If that occurred, it was then a matter of determining how fast one
would run, and in what direction.
No Mandraques were appearing on the horizon at that point, and eve ning was
just beginning to fall. The Bottom
Feeders’ flight of several days ago was nearly forgotten, for the Damned World
was a place of constant change and chal-
lenges. There was little point in dwelling on that which had happened in the
past, for the future was certain to bring enough hardships with it.

Still, the past held lessons that it could offer up. One of them, as far as
Zerena was concerned now, was “Check your equipment.” As the Bottom Feeders
made camp in yet another rocky outcropping that provided some mea sure of
protection, Zerena sat crouched on her haunches, watching
Mingo go over the jumpcar’s engine in order to make sure it was at peak
running condition. Of all of them, Mingo was the one who was the most
conversant in the mysteries of tech. Mingo insisted he was no techwiz, but
that cer-
tainly wasn’t the case as far as Zerena was concerned. It seemed there was
nothing he couldn’t do when it came to tech.
Mingo lay on his back under the jumpcar, studying the vehicle’s innards with
intense curiosity. Every so often Zer-
ena would hear a clank or the brisk cranking of some metal tool against a
fastener of some sort.
Unlike Zerena, who had no patience for this sort of work, Mingo Minkopolis
could remain at such endeavors for an entire day. He never tired of it, his
endless love for it bear-
ing him up under inexcusable pressure.
Besides, Zerena’s attention was elsewhere. She was watching her beloved Karsen
and that suspicious girl, Jepp, huddled in a corner, legs drawn up, talking in
intent, low voices and even laughing. It was actually Karsen who laughed. Jepp
merely smiled indulgently at him. Perhaps she had no sense of humor. Or
perhaps—and this was the more likely, considering what Zerena knew of the
girl’s background—she had been utterly brainwashed, depriving her of
personality, interests, and all else that made her unique.
And yet . . . and yet . . .
“She could be useful,” Zerena finally admitted aloud.
Mingo, under the jumpcar, hadn’t heard her at first. With a confused “Hunh?”
he hauled himself from beneath and looked up at her. “What did you say?”
“I said, ‘She could be useful.’”
“She?”

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Zerena, with a slight tilt of her chin, indicated a par tic u -
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
167

lar direction for Mingo to look in. He did so and saw Jepp and Karsen off by
themselves.
“Ahhhh, I see,” he said. Then he frowned and grunted, in that bullish way he
had, before shaking his head, “All right, actually I don’t quite see. But it
sounded ever more pro-
found to say that I did.”
“I hate to admit that the human female might be a posi-
tive influence on Karsen... b u t t h e r e i t i s . ”
“There what is?”
She looked at him askance. “Are you being deliberately obtuse?”
“I don’t believe I am, no.”
Zerena sighed heavily, stroking her chin before admitting in resignation,
“Karsen is ashamed of what he is.”
“Ashamed of being a Laocoon?”
“No, you idiot,” she said, slapping Mingo on the upper leg. He winced. Even a
casual swat by Zerena had some power behind it. “About being a Bottom Feeder.
He always has.”
“Well, I couldn’t remotely guess why that might be,” said
Mingo. “After all, to pursue a profession that is despised and looked down
upon by every single one of the Twelve
Races, including yours and mine to be at the very bottom of society’s food
chain. Why wouldn’t someone be positively brimming with a sense of self-
worth if they occupy that sta-
tion in life?”
“You are not helping.”
“I was not trying to.”
“We,” she said stiffly, “are part of the natural order. Ever since the first
creature killed its fellow, our kind has been there to pick through the
remains. Ours is a time- honored tradition.”
“So is projectile vomiting, Zerena. But being a part of that is hardly
anything that anyone wishes to boast about.”
Now Zerena fixed “the scowl” upon him. It was a partic-
ularly fierce look that he knew all too well, having been on the receiving end
of it countless times. “Am I to understand that you share the self-
loathing that my son feels?”
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PETER DAVID

“Not at all,” replied Mingo easily. “However, I have no pretensions about my
lot in life. I am what I am and I do what I do, and I am content in that. I
simply don’t ascribe any lofty ideals to it. If you wish to do so, and it’s
how you handle our turn- to- turn existence, then that is perfectly fine.”
“I appreciate your permission to think what I wish to think,” she told him
with sour annoyance.
Mingo refused to be drawn in. “Think nothing of it,” he said.
“But Karsen,” Zerena continued, staring off at her son, whose back was to her,
“shares neither my ‘lofty ideals’ nor your spirited fatalism. He actively
despises what we do, and that mind- set informs all his actions.”
“He does tend to carry an air of dispiritedness about him,” admitted Mingo.
“It hampers him. It prevents him from achieving all that
I know he can achieve. He could be the fiercest fighter, the proudest of us...
a n a t u r a l l eader . . .”
“Perhaps. Then again, Zerena,” he said, choosing his words carefully, “is it
not possible that—as his mother—

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you have a less- than- realistic view of his capabilities? I
mean, a fierce fighter? Honestly. In all my time as part of this clan, I have
never seen a fight that Karsen could not ei-
ther talk himself out of, or run from with all speed. So isn’t it just as
likely that—”
“You see that war hammer?” Once again using her chin as an indicator, she
nodded in Karsen’s direction.
“The one strapped to his back?”
“No, the one shoved up his ass,” Zerena Foux snapped with impatience. “Yes, of
course the one strapped to his back.”
“Yes, I see it. What of it? He took it off a dead Man-
draque, I’d wager.”
“You’d lose. He took it off a live Mandraque, one of two.
One of them he killed, and the other he beat senseless and left for dead.”
Mingo’s tiny eyes widened in surprise. “He did that?”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
169

“Yes.”
“Our little Karsen?”
“Most assuredly.”
“I don’t believe it,” Mingo said. “What in the world p r o m p t e d h i m t
o... ” T hen his voice trailed off as the an-
swer presented itself. “Her. She did. She prompted him to.”
“Just so,” confirmed Zerena. “He hasn’t exactly been forthcoming about it,
giving me only the most terse of de-
tails. But the human did not hesitate to extol the virtues of my son’s
‘heroics.’ The Mandraques were attempting to make off with her, and he
fought back against them.”
“That does not sound like Karsen,” Mingo told her, mak-
ing no attempt to keep the skepticism from his voice.
“The first thing he did was run away, leaving the girl to their mercy.”
“All right, that does sound like Karsen.” Mingo could scarcely pro cess it.
“Like any of us, actually. I mean, if trapped, we fight, that’s only natural.
But given any other option, we avoid conflict. Except Karsen, well . . . his
fight-
ing heart was always lacking somewhat, as you know. In a fight situation, on
his own, he’d be killed in no time. But you’re telling me that he not only
fled the scene but then came back? And triumphed? Because of her?”
“So it would seem.”
Mingo studied Jepp with newly found interest and appre-
ciation. “Well, that’s... p uzzling. I mean, she’s not much to look at, is
she. Smooth and hairless, and not much meat on her.”
“I wasn’t planning to cook her up and serve her,” snorted
Zerena. “The fact is that she seems to be having some sort of an effect on
him. What, I’m not sure. But I can tell you that I don’t see Karsen running
back to help just anybody.
There must be something about her.”
“She’s a plea sure slave. Perhaps that intrigues him.”
“Then why hasn’t he had her plea sure him, if that’s where his interest lies.
She’s been with us long enough.
He could have availed himself of her at any time.” She made a face. “I doubt
she’d be offering any protest in that
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PETER DAVID

event. I don’t know that she could, even if she wanted to.
S h e ’ s j u s t t h i s... t h i s h e l p l ess creature, doing what

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ever males tell her to do. Gods, was the entirety of their race like this?”
“I wouldn’t think so, considering the ferocity with which they fought
against the Third Wave,” said Mingo. “Although admittedly it was mostly males
who did the fighting.”
“So this may be characteristic of the female of the species, then. This
pliability and refusal to stand up for their own interests.”
“Could be. But it’s all conjecture. And she seems to have little enough grasp
of history to be of any use.”
“I’m not sure she has sufficient grasp of anything to be of any use. Still . .
. he appears enamored of her.”
“Enamored?” He studied her thoughtfully. She was smil-
ing at something that Karsen was saying. “Do you truly think so?”
“Honestly, I cannot be sure. I mean, he seems to be...
but I’ve nothing to compare it to in his previous behavior.”
“Nothing?” That was a surprise to Mingo. “You mean in all his years, he’s
never . . .”
“No.”
“Not with any...? ”
“How often do we encounter others of our kind, Mingo?”
she demanded. “Occasionally we come upon small, wan-
dering tribes of Laocoon. That is the way of our people, to be vagabonds. And
it is also their way to be insular and not kindly disposed to strangers.”
“But what about your own tribe? I mean, I’ve only been part of your . . .” He
made a vague gesture that included the gelatinous Gant a short distance away,
and Rafe Kestor, who was absentmindedly sharpening his sword against a rock.
“Of your ‘clan’ for a relatively short time. You were part of a tribe
before, weren’t you?”
“Yes. We were.”
“ A n d...? ”
“And now,” she said tersely, in a tone that discouraged further discussion,
“we are not.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
171

“I see,” said Mingo, who didn’t entirely but chose not to pursue it. “And
during the time that you were—”
“We do not need to go over this ceaselessly, Mingo,” Zer-
ena said, raising her voice slightly and getting a curious look from Karsen.
She promptly brought her tone under control again. “The point is, he’s never
been with a female of any sort . . . not in any meaningful way. But this one
in-
terests him. Intrigues him. And I don’t see that I’m in any position to try
and gainsay him, especially when the female may well do him far more good
than harm.”
“But I still do not understand what he sees in her.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Zerena insisted, “so long as she sees something in
him.”
“Then you are actively going to encourage this... t h i s involvement?”
“I’m not going to encourage anything,” she said, casting furtive glances in
Karsen’s direction. “I shall simply allow matters to run their course. If she
is of benefit to my son...
if she encourages him in her own strange way to reach the p o t e n t i a l I
k n o w h e h a s... t hen she will have my grati-
tude.”
“What if she hurts him in some way?”
“Then,” Zerena said with a flash of teeth, “I shall rip her to shreds myself.”
ii.
Karsen had a feeling that Zerena and Mingo were dis-
cussing him and Jepp, but he was only able to catch a few words here and

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there. He decided there was little reason to be concerned about it, as they
were not casting hostile glances in his direction, but instead simply looked
inter-
ested.
“I can only imagine what my mother must think,” he said, leaning back against
a rock wall. He swatted lazily at a passing fly.
“Think of what?” asked Jepp.
172
PETER DAVID

“Of us.”
“We are an ‘us’?” Jepp inquired, wide- eyed. “Are you definitely my new
master now? Am I to ser vice you so it can be as it was when I was with the
Greatness?”
He stared at her in bewilderment, all his mother’s stern comments about how
Jepp needed to be a stronger person coming back to his mind. “Jepp... can
you imagine a life other than that which you had with the Greatness?”
“You mean a life where I serve you instead of him?”
“No, not at all.” He shook his head, already feeling a bit frustrated and
sorry he’d brought it up. “I mean one where y o u a r e i n v o l v e d w i
t h s o m e o n e... a n d i t i s o n e q u a l f o o t -
ing. Instead of serving a master, you would be... w e l l...
as one with a partner. Neither of you would be greater than the other.”
“I’ve heard of such arrangements,” Jepp said thought-
fully, “but not with my kind. We are bred. We serve. We die.
In some ways,” she sighed, “we are to be envied for the sim-
plicity of our lives.”
“I couldn’t envy it at all,” Karsen assured her. “It sounds eternally
awful.”
“More awful than... t han him?” Jepp pointed at Gant, subtly so he wouldn’t
see her . . . although since he was a large shapeless mass, she couldn’t see
where his face was and thus couldn’t tell whether he’d spotted her pointing
or not.
He looked where she was pointing and reluctantly nod-
ded. “He has a difficult life, I’ll grant you.”
“I should think so,” she agreed. “To live one’s whole life in such a
state... ”
“Whole life?” Karsen looked taken aback at the notion.
“You don’t think Gant always looked that way, do you?”
“No?” She shrugged. “It never occurred to me otherwise.
W e l l , t h e n... i f n o t a l w a y s i n t h a t f o r m , t hen
what ...? ”
Karsen glanced right and left to make certain none of the other Bottom Feeders
were within earshot. Then, to play it safe, he leaned even closer in toward
Jepp. Obediently she angled forward so that he could easily whisper to her.
“You did not hear this from me,” he began.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
173

“Really.” This clearly puzzled her. “Then from whom did
I hear it?”
That gave Karsen pause. He shrugged. “Very well, you did hear it from me. But
don’t repeat what I’m telling you.
Have you ever heard of the Phey?”
“I’ve heard of many things, Karsen Foux,” she assured him. “I know that you
think me ignorant . . .”
“No!”
“ ...a n d t h a t y o u r m o t h e r t h i nks me a fool.”

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“Ah, well,” he sighed, “that much, yes. But if it’s of any consolation, that
is her usual opinion about all creatures that walk or scuttle or swim the
surface of the Damned World.
So I would not take it much to heart were I you.”
“If you say so,” she said uncertainly. “The point is, I was with the Greatness
much of the time. He liked to show me off. And I heard many discussions about
many things. So many, in fact, that I know more than I wish to. My knowl-
edge invades my waking moments... w o r se, it invades my sleep. In the
night, the visions come to me with such clarity
I... ”
She trembled, and Karsen stared at her in confusion.
“Are you all right?” he asked, reaching over and resting one hand atop hers.
She pulled her hand away, still quivering, and then with a visible effort
shook it off. “Yes. I am fine. I’ve never actually seen one of the Phey.
They’re one of only two races I’ve never seen with my own eyes, the other
being the Serabim on their Zeffers. I would like to, though. I would like to
have seen all of the Twelve Races. That’s not always easy. There are many who
have seen none but their own, you know. So seeing them all . . . that would
make me . . .” She searched for the right word. “Interesting. I would be an
interesting person if I saw all of them. I hope to.”
“I find you interesting,” Karsen said, smiling.
She returned the smile, and then concentrated on remem-
bering all that she had heard, trying forcefully to pull the conversation back
to where it had been. “The . . . Phey. The oldest of the Twelve Races. Older
than the Firedraques, 174
PETER DAVID

even. Some say that the Banishers feared the Phey more than any other of us.
The Phey keep to themselves; even their homeland is unknown. They are tall and
elegant and suppos-
edly of such beauty that one can go mad just by looking upon them. Their
beauty is so transcendent that whether you are Draque or Sirene or,” and she
nodded in ac know ledg -
ment toward Karsen, “a Laocoon, it makes no difference.
They will be fair in all eyes.”
“Have you heard anything else?”
“Oh yes,” she said, warming to the topic. “It is said they are powerful magic
users. That it took all the power of the
Banishers to send them here. That they are fewest in num-
ber of all the races, but because of their abilities, still the most
dangerous. Although,” she continued thoughtfully, “I
have occasionally wondered if the Phey themselves put for-
ward the tales of their formidable abilities in order to make up for their
lack of numbers.”
“No,” said Karsen firmly, and then he cast a subtle glance in Gant’s
direction. “And he’s living proof of it.”
“What?” Jepp stared blankly at Karsen. “I’m . . . not following. Are... a r
e y o u s a y i n g t h e P h e y d i d t h a t t o h i m...? ”
“I’m saying he was one of the Phey.”
Jepp gasped, scarcely able to credit what Karsen was telling her. “He was? He
really was? One of—”
“One of a race of creatures so beautiful that you would have crawled across
shattered stone, just to have him smile at you once and mean it.” Karsen shook
his head. “Poor bastard.”
“ B u t h o w...? ”
Karsen absolutely adored indulging in gossip even though he didn’t have much
opportunity to do so. With the air of guilty excitement that always
accompanied such chatty discussions, he said, “According to my mother—and
she’s never wrong about such matters—Gant was something of a rogue when it

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came to females. He was involved with one young woman, fair of face and
figure, but he could not resist and became enamored of the woman’s younger
sister.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
175

Frankly, I don’t know what Gant could have been thinking, to play such a
dangerous game as pitting sisters against one another. In any event, as anyone
with a lick of brains would have been able to foresee, the sisters came
together and ex-
acted a terrible revenge on he who had been toying with them both.”
“They turned him into that
?” When he nodded, Jepp let out a low whistle. “How awful! That they could do
such a thing to him. How did he wind up as part of this clan?”
When she saw that Karsen was laughing in response to her question, she
furrowed her brow. “Is that a funny ques-
tion?”
“No, a funny answer. We salvaged him. Mother thought he was some sort of rare
engine lubricant, and Gant was simply too depressed by his situation to make
his status clear. It’s a miracle we didn’t destroy the jumpcar’s motor with
him.”
Upon hearing that, Jepp laughed as well, and Karsen watched her closely as she
did so. “I don’t believe I’ve heard you laugh before.”
Instantly Jepp ceased and lowered her head. “I’m sorry,”
she said contritely. “I won’t do it again.”
Karsen moaned. “Now, you see, that’s exactly the type of thing you do that
drives my mother insane.”
“I’m sorry,” she said in exactly the same tone. “I will try not to drive your
mother insane.”
“Yes, well . . . good luck on that score.”
“Speaking of insane,” and she glanced around but didn’t see him, “what about
that Mandraque? That ‘Rafe Kestor.’
What of him?”
“He was an aging Mandraque, a respected general, who came upon several others
who were of lower order than he, surrounding my mother while she was on
salvage.
Truth to tell, she could probably have handled it herself. In case you
haven’t noticed, my mother is quite . . . capable.”
Karsen chuckled at that, but then grew serious. “He told the others to back
off. That it was unworthy of them. They didn’t listen, he stepped in, fought
them off . . . but not
176
PETER DAVID

b e f o r e... ” H e t h u m ped the side of his skull with the base of his
palm.
“He punched himself in the head?”
“Nooo,” he said with meticulously controlled patience, “he took a blow to the
head from the sword of one of the
Mandraques. Or maybe it was a club. Either way, he was downed, and Mother took
him in with us. The wound took forever to heal, and even once it did, he was
never quite right again. He has his moments of lucidity, as when he got into
that argument about the Greatness. But much of the time, he’s unclear as to
where he is and sometimes even who he is. If he returned to his people, they’d
eat him a l i v e... possibly literally. So he stays with us. Face to the
foe, he can actually be rather formidable, provided he re-
members they’re trying to kill him.”
“That’s so sad,” she said wistfully.

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Karsen noticed the campfire was beginning to die. He took several more pieces
of wood and tossed them on, then smiled as it flared up again. “Sad? Actually,
he’s probably the happiest of us here. Every moment is a new surprise and a
challenge for greater glory.”
“So none of you is truly happy?”
“I didn’t say that. The truth is that . . .”
Then he noticed that Jepp wasn’t looking at him. Instead she was staring
toward the sky in wide- eyed wonderment.
“I don’t believe it,” she whispered. “I . . . I just don’t be-
lieve it.”
He turned to see where she was looking, and when he saw what she had espied,
his mouth dropped open in aston-
ishment.
“Do you see it?” It was his mother, Zerena, calling out from a short distance
away, and he had never heard that tone of pure awe in her voice. It took a
great deal to impress
Zerena Foux, but apparently this sight was capable of doing so. “Do you see
it, Karsen?”
“Yes! Jepp sees it, too!”
“Not really caring about that,” Zerena said brusquely as she approached, her
gaze still riveted skyward. Mingo was
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
177

right behind her, similarly impressed. Gant was undulating about, although it
was impossible to tell if he was able to perceive reality the way others did.
And Rafe Kestor contin-
ued obliviously with his sword thrusts at enemies that only he could envision.
High, high above, unimaginably high, sailed one of the few creatures left upon
the Damned World that could possi-
bly be referred to as “majestic.” It floated with the careless-
ness of a cloud, and indeed could even be mistaken for one if the viewer was
not sharp- eyed enough to realize what he was seeing.
Its body was like a vast dome, or even vaguely bell-
shaped, billowing and shimmering. The color or colors of it shifted from one
moment to the next, although it seemed to waver mostly between white and
green. It undulated out and back, out and back, and from this distance it was
impossible to determine just how large the creature truly was. Dangling from
around its edges, harder to see but still visible, was an array of stringlike
tentacles that wavered constantly in the winds on high.
“This is your lucky day,” Karsen said to Jepp.
Zerena glanced down in confusion. “Her lucky day?
Why?”
“Look! There’s another!” Jepp suddenly cried out, and she was so excited that
the hand she was pointing with visi-
bly trembled. “A second Zeffer, coming from behind the clouds!”
“That’s ridiculous,” Mingo assured her. “They never travel i n... oh, holy
gods, she’s right.”
“She’s right?” said an astounded Zerena, but the evidence of her own eyes was
directly before her. A second Zeffer had joined the first, gliding just behind
it and matching it in its pure, graceful undulations.
“Are there Serabim riding them?” Jepp could scarcely contain herself. She was
hopping back and forth, clapping her hands in childlike glee. “I think I see
one on each! I
think! But it’s hard to tell! But I think—”
“Quiet, girl! Gods!” Although Zerena’s words were
178
PETER DAVID

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harsh, her tone was not. Karsen could tell that the sight they were seeing
impressed even his hard- bitten mother. “Of course there would have to be
Serabim riding them. They never go anywhere without each other. Everybody
knows that.”
They lapsed into silence. The only sound was Rafe’s sword slicing through the
air. He continued in his maneu-
vers, oblivious of all else.
Finally Karsen said, “Who else do you think is watch-
ing?”
“What do you mean?” asked Zerena.
“ I m e a n... w e l l , t h i n k o f i t , M o t h e r . W e ’ r e
encamped here, waiting to see the smoke or receive word or smell the burning
of another battle that we can then pick through for salvage once it’s done . .
. as is inevitable when one is dis-
cussing the Twelve Races. And surely the imminent future combatants, who will
try to kill each other despite the Fire-
draque treaties they’ve all agreed to, are preparing for an-
other pointless exercise in mutual extermination. But I’ll guarantee you that,
at this moment, all those involved in this endless cycle of violence are
looking heavenward with slack- jawed amazement. We’re sharing in the
childlike wonder of it all. Can you imagine if all the Twelve Races could come
together like that on a regular basis? Can you imagine what life on the Damned
World would be like then?”
“Yes,” said Zerena humorlessly. “It would put us out of business.”
“Oh, Mother,” groaned Karsen.
“You know, Jepp,” Mingo spoke up, drifting over toward her while never looking
away from the Zeffers. “To see a single Zeffer is rare enough. But it is said
that when two
Zeffers are seen, a time of great change is upon us.”
“Who says that?” Zerena demanded. “People are always saying, ‘It is said,’ but
no one ever says who did the saying.
Damned foolishness if you ask me.”
“I don’t recall anyone, in fact, asking you, Zerena,”
Mingo replied archly.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
179

Jepp shifted uncomfortably in place, suddenly looking very ill at ease in her
own body. “A time of great change?”
she asked.
“So I’ve heard.”
“I can’t say I like the sound of that,” said Jepp.
“No one ever does, sweetling,” Mingo sighed. “No one ever does.”
ii.
She despises her dreams.
Oftentimes she has dreamt of images she can barely fathom. Images of creatures
long past, long dead, being slaughtered at the hands and talons of the
Banished. Crea-
tures that were so massive they could blot out the sun when standing fully
upright, and ruled the earth while her ances-
tors’ ancestors cowered in trees. She watched them in their death throes,
watched the beginnings of the Twelve Races establish their collective toehold
upon the Damned World long before it had its name, and then they themselves
died out in their compulsion for mutual warfare that lasted to this day.
This night she does not dream of the past. This night she is anchored firmly
in the present, or perhaps the future. She has not had a dream in quite some
time. She has not missed them. She does not like them, for she typically wakes
up from them trembling and terrified, and sometimes she re-

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quires as much as a full day to recover.
But one roars into existence now. It pervades her head and her soul, grips her
firmly, and will not depart her with-
out having its say.
She sees them coming. They are vast and frightening, and they are nowhere near
as large as the Zeffers, but they are ter-
rifying nonetheless. Yet she cannot get a true feel for their size, for one
feature dominates above all. It is the eye, the large, unblinking, relentless,
pitiless eye. It is fixed upon her, and it is invading her, and she wants to
look away but cannot, 180
PETER DAVID

for it is everywhere. And it brings disaster with its gaze. She knows that, as
surely as she knows that matters are changing and not for the better, no, not
at all. She wants it to stop, she begs for it to stop, but it will not, and
she screams a name . . .
“Jepp!”
It is not the name that she had been crying out. The name is confusing to her
at first, coming as it is out of nowhere, but then she recognizes it as her
own and she fights back to consciousness, swimming through what seems a vast,
vis-
cous liquid, grasping toward the surface, certain she’s not going to make it.
The eye continues to stare at her, to sur-
round her, to become her surroundings, and then it is no longer an eye, but a
single great silver sphere, glistening and pulsing with an inner power that
she cannot begin to comprehend, and suddenly light is cascading from every
part of the ball, it has become the center of its own sun, and the word “Orb”
burns itself into her mind, and then she is shaking, caught up in a quake...
“Jepp!”
Karsen shook her once more, her head snapping back and forth. The other Bottom
Feeders, roused from their slumber by her shrieks, approached with varying
degrees of concern and annoyance. Foremost among the annoyed was
Zerena. “What the hell is going on!” she demanded.
“They’re coming!” Jepp cried out. “They’re coming a n d... a n d t h e y ’ l
l k ill us... e y e... e y e... ”
“You you what?” said Zerena.
“Eye!”
“What about you?!”
Frantically, Jepp pointed at her own eye with such insis-
tence that she nearly jabbed her finger into it. “Eye! Eye!
Huge and unblinking! Giant creatures!”
“ Y o u m e a n... Oculars?” asked Karsen.
“Yes! Yes, Oculars! The Greatness... h e had a trophy of one.”
“A trophy?” Zerena looked at the others. “What does she mean, a—”
To Karsen’s surprise, it was Rafe Kestor who responded.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
181

He hadn’t even realized that Rafe was near them or had stirred from his
slumber, despite Jepp’s howling. But he was quite awake, crouched nearby, and
his eyes were dark as he said, “She means a hunting trophy. Before the
Firedraque accords, it was not . . . unusual . . . for Mandraques to hunt up
north for the specific purpose of tracking down and killing an Ocular. Then
they would bring it back and pre-
serve it. Stuff it.”
Mingo, clearly appalled, asked, “How could they do such a thing?”
“Well, the pro cess is quite interesting. First all the inter-
nal organs are—”

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“I mean how could they bring themselves to . . .” Mingo was shaking his head.
“Killing one another is one thing, but putting kills on display . . . that’s
just ghastly.”
“It is tradition,” Rafe Kestor replied, and he didn’t seem re-
motely as put off as Mingo was. “It is what it is.” He turned his attention to
Jepp as if Mingo was no longer worth the ef-
fort. “And you dreamt of the trophy belonging to the Great-
ness?”
“No! No, it was... i t w a s a l i v e . A l i v e a n d t e r r i f y i
n g t h e y were. Terrifying! And now they are coming for us!”
Karsen settled next to the shaking Jepp and put an arm around her to steady
her. He glanced toward Zerena to see what her reaction would be, but her face
was a study in neu-
trality. If she was angry over Karsen openly displaying con-
cern about Jepp, she was hiding it well. It made him wonder if somehow, for
some bizarre reason, she was actually in favor of Karsen becoming involved
with Jepp. Not that such a thing was likely. For some reason he found her
utter devo-
tion to him . . . off- putting somehow. And he doubted his attitude toward
her was going to change.
“Jepp,” he said soothingly, “it was just a dream.”
“I don’t have just dreams!”
“Well, you had one now,” he assured her. “We are nowhere near the land of the
Ocular. Isn’t that right, Mother?”
“Yes, that’s right.” Zerena wasn’t making any effort to sound at all
reassuring, but at least she wasn’t yelling or
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PETER DAVID

being belligerent, so that was certainly a plus. “The Ocular live far up
north, in Feend, nowhere near here.”
“Yes, and furthermore,” Mingo continued, “they never wander away from Feend
because then they have to contend with normal shifts of day and night. And
during the day they’re blind, helpless. They may be the mightiest things on
two legs in the dark, but give them a sunny day and they’re easily
dispatched.”
“So rest assured,” Karsen said, “that there’s no—”
At that moment, the wind shifted.
It had been blowing away from them, but now the wind randomly changed
direction. Mingo caught the scent first, his horned head snapping around, and
an alarmed bull- like cry ripping from his throat. A few seconds later,
Karsen and
Zerena picked it up as well. They looked at each other in shock, blood
draining from their faces. And Jepp sat there, her nose useless, sensing that
something had abruptly changed in their situation, but not having the faintest
idea what it was.
“Is there a problem?” she asked innocently, just before three gargantuan
shadows emerged from behind a nearby cir-
cle of upright boulders. They moved as noiselessly as shad-
ows, their silence belying their size. One of them stepped into the forefront,
gazing at them with a single huge, unblinking brown eye.
“Well, well, well,” rumbled the Ocular. “Zerena Foux and her clan. How con ve
nient. My honor guard and I,” and he said, as he indicated the other two male
Ocular with a ca-
sual wave, “were just speaking of how we could use some fresh meat for dinner.
And here you’ve done us the courtesy of presenting yourselves to us for our
dining plea sure. Most considerate of you.”
At which point Jepp fainted dead away.
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183

THE CITY- STATE OF VENETS
i.
{At first the Markene does not understand what is happen-
ing. The Klaa is up ahead, but something is preventing him from getting to it.
The fact that there’s an obstruction doesn’t initially register. He knows
where he is, he knows where the Klaa is, sitting there in its coral bed in the
cove, just out of reach. For some reason, he cannot complete the distance to
obtain it.}
{Over time, other Markene drift over as well, for the same purpose: obtain the
Klaa and continue to float in its comforting haze. They cannot reach it,
either. Slowly, very slowly, just enough of the fog upon their brains begins
to lift.}
{They see it, then. They see the obstruction, the mighty gate that blocks off
the cove, that prevents them from get-
ting to the Klaa. They have encountered the gate before.
They know they cannot pass through it. Yet they try, gods, how they try. As
their concern builds, they throw them-
selves against the mesh with head- rattling velocity and force. But the
gate withstands their assaults.}
{They cannot pass. They cannot obtain the Klaa.}
{They know that means something. Somewhere in the in-
ner recesses of their minds, they are aware that an inability to reach the
Klaa indicates something of significance. And as the fog continues to lift,
they will begin to remember what it is, and they will assemble, and they will
learn, and they will perform, and then the Klaa will be theirs once more, and
all will be well.}

ii.
“What are we being summoned for?”
Gorkon was floating just next to the Resting Point, which was where he had
come to meet Ruark Sydonis yet again.
They had rendezvoused there several times over the previ-
ous weeks since that day that Ruark had short- circuited
Gorkon’s attempt to kill himself.
The young Markene no longer gave any thought to ending his own life. In fact,
he still felt a burning embarrassment that he had even considered it in the
first place. Instead his atten-
tion and interest were entirely caught up in his meeting with
Ruark. Ruark, for his part, had smiled and shaken his head in a slightly
patronizing way and told him, “You have to find something else to live for
other than me, son. I am old and not particularly interesting. At the very
least, find yourself a nice female.”
But the female Markene were just like all the others: con-
tent to live in their Klaa- induced haze. Gorkon had had sex with several
Markene females in his lifetime. In each in-
stance his partner had giggled and sighed and made billowy cooing noises, and
minutes later seemed to have utterly for-
gotten the encounter. To a Markene male who was using fe-
males as an outlet for the release of urges so pounding that they managed to
briefly penetrate the fog of Klaa, that was sufficient. (And female Markene,
when they gave birth, were always surprised when they had done so.
Fortunately
Markene young were born largely self- sufficient; otherwise the entire
species would have long ago become extinct. Un-
fortunately they were also born addicted to Klaa.) For a
Markene male who wanted to make some sort of emotional connection, it was

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woefully insufficient, and Gorkon was unique in that respect. Unique and
alone.
On their third get- together, when Ruark had made a casual slip in
referring to the palace, Gorkon had figured out that this was indeed Ruark
Sydonis, lord of the Sirene.
Ruark had grudgingly admitted to it but then seemed
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
185

disinclined to discuss it any further, and Gorkon had hon-
ored that obvious wish. He valued too greatly the discus-
sions he had with Ruark about far- ranging topics. Matters of life and
death, philosophy, history, all of them were fod-
der for their chats. Ruark and Gorkon had a spirited give-
and- take that was almost like teacher and student, except often it seemed as
if they took turns over who was student and who was teacher.
But this par tic u lar day, as Ruark bobbed up and down in his little
one- man boat, Gorkon knew that he was not going to be able to ignore Ruark’s
station in life. Not when it came to providing answers that had potential
significance for his people, as addled as their minds might be.
“Summoned?” Ruark raised his brow questioningly and stared at Gorkon with
polite confusion. “I’m not sure what you’re referring to.”
“The gate is down.”
“ T h e g a t e...? ”
“The gate that blocks the cove.”
“Ahhhh,” Ruark said slowly. “
That gate.”
Gorkon swam around the Resting Point, studying Ruark scrupulously for some
sign of duplicity. He had come to like the elder, there was no denying that.
But there was also no denying that he was royalty and a Merk, and both of
those factors had to be considered when it came to their in-
teractions. “Yes, that gate. The gate that, when it is up, al-
lows my people access to their precious Klaa.”
“Perhaps you were responsible,” suggested Ruark.
He gaped at the Merk. “Me? How do you possibly figure that?”
“Well, if your people were deprived of their Klaa, per-
haps they would eventually become as clearheaded as your-
self, and you would no longer require me for intelligent conversation.”
Gorkon shook his head sadly. “Would that it were so,” he muttered. “Besides,
it’s ridiculous to think that I would be involved. And you know all that,” he
added with vague irri-
tation. “So why would you even accuse me?”
186
PETER DAVID

“I accused you of nothing,” Ruark said mildly. “Merely floated a notion. It is
from small, floating notions that great notions are born.”
“Perhaps,” admitted Gorkon. “But that still leaves me with my original
question: Why are we being summoned?”
“You’re certain of that, are you? That you’re being sum-
moned?”
“It is traditionally the reason, yes,” Gorkon said. “My people are blocked
from the Klaa. That means that the
Merk want something from us. That your people do.”
“We are all one people,” Ruark corrected him.
“No,” Gorkon said with such fierceness that Ruark rocked back in his chair,
almost unseating himself and falling into the water as a result. “No. We are
all Sirene, that much is true.

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But we are not one people, because if we were, one group of us would not so
ruthlessly and shamelessly hold dominance over the other, relentlessly
manipulating us as they see fit.”
“If you believe that,” Ruark replied, “then you don’t know people at all.”
“I suppose I don’t,” grunted Gorkon.
Ruark said nothing to that for a time. Instead, having steadied himself in his
chair, he simply looked thoughtful.
“Truthfully, my young friend,” Ruark said at last, “I do not know. As I may
have mentioned from time to time, my beloved mate is not always entirely
forthcoming with mat-
ters of state. However . . .”
“However what?”
“However,” he mused, “I think it may have something to do with the Travelers.”
“With the Travelers?” That significantly piqued Gorkon’s interest. “What could
it possibly have to do with the Travel-
ers?”
“I don’t know. I suppose you will find out, won’t you.”
“Why do I have the feeling,” Gorkon asked suspiciously, “that you know more
than you’re telling?”
“You would be wrong. I do, however
, suspect more than
I’m telling. I will not burden you with my suspicions.”
“ W h y n o t ? I t w o u l d b e n o b u r d e n... ”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
187

“Because you are most likely right in that you are being summoned,” Ruark told
him. “The gate has been lowered, your people cut off. There can be no other
interpretation, really. So they will assemble where they always go at such
times, at the Great Pier, and there will learn just what is being asked of
them. I think it would be best if you went with them without predispositions
or preconceptions. Ex-
perience what is being said for what it is, and don’t allow my thoughts to
color yours. Decide for yourself. Utilize that brain of which you are so
justly proud.”
Gorkon looked at him askance. “You are acting very dif-
ferently from when we first encountered each other.”
“Am I?”
“Yes. You seemed vague, meandering in your thoughts.
Unfocused and distant and even confused. Yet that no longer seems the case.”
“Was I that way?”
“You were,” insisted Gorkon. “And I am led to wonder whether you are el der
ly and your mind wanders in and out . . . or if you always know precisely what
you’re doing, and simply allow others to think you enfeebled in some way.”
“Why on the Damned World would I do that?” asked Ru-
ark Sydonis, sounding genuinely interested, as if they were talking about
someone else entirely.
“So you will not be seen as a threat. So you can learn more when people who
believe themselves your superior let down their guard. Or perhaps,” and he
swam right up to the boat, resting a webbed hand upon it, “you simply enjoy
playing games and using others as your pawns.”
“All valid reasons,” Ruark said amiably. “I will be most interested to find
out which one it is.”
And with that, he turned his boat around and paddled off back toward Venets,
leaving a thoughtful Gorkon floating in his wake.
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iii.
Orin Arn Oran knew himself to be a decent Merk. A power-
ful and honest Merk. One who was interested in the best in-
terests and goals of his people.
Long had he gone back and forth in his mind over what to do. The fervor of the
lady Tulisia had been contagious, but doubts invaded the mind of the Warlord
of Venets the moment he was away from her.
Madness. It’s madness echoed in his head. He tried to see matters from
Tulisia’s point of view. She was right:
Three- quarters of the Damned World was indeed water, and the Sirene was the
only race alive that could rightfully claim to be masters of an environment
that would repel any others.
Even the vaunted Travelers couldn’t survive in the murky depths.
O r c o u l d t h e y...?
That’s what it kept coming back to for Orin Arn Oran.
There were so many unknowns involved in all this. Tulisia had a very clear
point of view of what would happen. She had laid out two possible scenarios,
and she was content.
Orin, on the other hand, wasn’t concerned about that which could be predicted.
Instead he kept dwelling on that which he wasn’t able to foresee. It was the
things that Tulisia didn’t anticipate that could mean the destruction of
every-
thing. Which meant that it was up to Orin Arn Oran to fig-
ure out what it was she was overlooking.
What if the Overseer determined that Tulisia was behind it? That he, Orin, was
involved? What if the Markene were believed when they claimed they were
ordered to do what they had done? What if the Markene were successful in de-
stroying the Travelers, but that defeat set an unimaginable chain of events
into motion? What if there was some sort of failsafe device in existence in
Venets that would cause the annihilation of Venets upon the defeat of the
Travelers?
What if, what if, what if . . .
His head was spinning with all that could go wrong. Not
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
189

just could: he was convinced it would. Orin Arn Oran felt as if he was holding
the future of his entire race in the palm of his hand.
“I will tell her ‘no,’ that’s all,” he finally said. “I will tell the lady
Tulisia no.” He was in his study, and his mate, At-
lanna, had just brought him fresh water to drink. Atlanna had been a stunning
young female when they had first met, and the years had been more than kind to
her. Four young-
sters had not taken a noticeable toll on her body, and on land or sea, she
moved with a flawless grace that under-
scored superb upbringing and boundless confidence.
So it was all the more surprising when, upon hearing that pronouncement,
Atlanna dropped the glass. It struck the ground and shattered. Atlanna did not
even seem to notice it. Her yellow eyes were locked upon him with a
frightened, stunned gaze. She brushed back wisps of her short seaweed hair
even as she shook her head and said, “You cannot be serious. Is this... i s
t h i s a b o u t t h e b u s i ness with the Travel-
ers that you told me about?”
“Yes, I . . .”
“You cannot be serious!”
He stepped around his desk, regarding his spouse with wonder. “But it could be
suicide for our people, don’t you see that?”
“And to refuse Tulisia is suicide for us! How can you not see that?
”

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Orin laughed at that. “That is just . . . just foolishness, At-
lanna. The lady Tulisia will listen to reason... ”
“The lady Tulisia will listen to the lady Tulisia,” she cor-
rected him sternly, “and she will listen to those who say what she wants to
hear. If you are not among that number, then we are finished. Finished with
her, with Venets. We would have to leave immediately. Or, if you prefer, you
could just kill us all and yourself right now, and save us the time and
trouble.”
“You do not know what you’re talking about,” he said un-
certainly.
190
PETER DAVID

“I know exactly what I am talking about, and you do as well, except you are
not willing to admit it. Orin, listen to me,” and her voice became
supplicating. She stroked his arm. “The lady Tulisia turns to you because she
believes that you will carry out her desires. You must. Otherwise she will
strike back at us, get herself a new Warlord, and he will do what you will
not.”
“Strike back? I command the Markene. I command the royal guard.”
“And she commands you. Ultimately, you don’t know to whom the guard would owe
its loyalty. And even if they were loyal to you, do you truly believe that
brute force is the only weapon Tulisia has at her command?” She glanced around
ner vous ly. “She has eyes and ears everywhere! She has operatives
everywhere! If you are out of favor with the lady Tulisia, if you defy her . .
. do you seriously think an army of brutes will fall upon you one eve ning?
No! You will be on your way somewhere one day, thinking of nothing save coming
home to your daughters and me, and then there will be some quick pain in your
ribs. You will look down and there will be more blood than you knew you had in
your en-
tire body, gushing from the wound from a passing knife and for the life of
you—which will be quickly fleeing your body, rest assured—you won’t have the
faintest idea who it was!”
“Atlanna, for gods sake—!”
“Or me!” she said with increasing urgency. “Or your daughters! Did you even
consider us in your . . . your orgy of concern? What if she decides simply to
pressure you into do-
ing as you are bid by disposing of us, one by one! How many of your daughters
will have to meet with mysterious acci-
dents before you do what you should have done in the first place!”
It was almost too much for Orin to pro cess. “I . . . I
never . . . she would never . . .”
She took each of his hands and held them so tightly he thought the fingers
would break. “You must . . . and she would. You are a leader of males, Orin.
There is none better.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
191

But you are no leader of females. In reading Tulisia’s inten-
tions, you have to trust me to be your mind and your heart. I
am telling you that the well- being, the very fate, of your family, is
hinging on the next decision you make. And if you refuse to believe that or
accept it . . . then we’re all of us doomed. All of us.”
iv.
Gorkon was not among the first to arrive. By the time he got to the Pier,
Markene were already there. They floated list-
lessly, staring at one another with glazed eyes. Gorkon could practically read
their minds. They knew they had to be where they were, pulled there by some

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primal need, but their ability to connect their actions with the impetus that
had brought them there was vague at best.
The Pier had been the traditional meeting place for as long as Gorkon could
remember: a long, metal pier, extend-
ing from Venets hundreds of feet out into the water. This was because the
residents of Venets itself, the Merk, dis-
dained to look upon the Markene. They regarded their racial cousins as no more
than a necessary evil. They were the beings of burden who did the jobs that
the Merk did not want to have any association with. If the Merk were ever
under attack, the Markene would be the first line of defense.
The Klaa made them malleable, so that they would obey in-
structions even if they did not fully understand them.
Gorkon knew this, even though his peers did not. They were too oblivious to
know anything except the bliss of
Klaa. But Gorkon also knew the drawback of Klaa. While it made the Markene
malleable, it also made their ability to act upon instructions hit- or-
miss. With an enemy approaching them, usually only a few of the Markene were
required to deal with the situation. The only practical means of attack-
ing Venets was by water, and a handful of Markene could destroy an armada. So
if a hundred of them received instruc-
tions and only ten of them actually had the presence of mind
192
PETER DAVID

to remember them and execute them properly, still, that was enough. But if
they were deprived of the Klaa, as was the case now, it meant something
truly significant was going to be asked of them. Something that was going to
require more than some Merk pointing in a par tic u lar direction and say-
ing, “Go. Go and destroy.” The Markene were going to be required to hold an
idea in their head for a time and then act as a coordinated force. Thus they
were to be bereft of Klaa while the matter was explained to them. That way,
even when they resumed their partaking of Klaa, the instructions would have
sunk sufficiently into their heads that they would re-
member them no matter what. That was simply how their brains functioned.
Gorkon, naturally, was operating in possession of his full faculties. He was
the first to see the distant form upon the
Pier, approaching them as the unblinking eye of the moon gazed piteously down
upon them. The Markene made no noise except for the sounds of bobbing in the
water as they waited expectantly.
It was easy for Gorkon to tell that the individual ap-
proaching them was nobility. He had that confident air, the squared shoulders,
the appearance of boundless confidence in the way he moved. He was someone
who, once commit-
ted to a course of action, never wavered or doubted it for a moment.
The figure reached the end of the Pier and stared down upon the assembled
Markene. Mounted on a pedestal nearby was a large bell that was sometimes used
to summon the Markene to the Pier. The bell would produce a loud, sonorous
ringing sound that could be heard both above and in the water, and the Markene
were conditioned to come in response. In this case, it hadn’t been necessary
since they were already coming to the Pier, looking for answers.
Gorkon glanced around and saw that many more had joined the crowd. The sea was
awash with them, several hundred of them at least. Enough to annihilate any
fleet that might be sailing against the Sirene. And that, Gorkon was
convinced, had to be the case. There was no other possible
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
193

rationale for assembling the Markene. There had to be an imminent threat to

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the city- state, and the Markene were go-
ing to be dispatched to deal with it.
The noble looked down sternly upon them. When he spoke, his voice carried
across the water, strong and true. Gorkon recognized him when he spoke. It was
the Warlord, Orin Arn
Oran.
“The Travelers,” he said, “are preparing to move against
Venets.”
Gorkon was thunderstruck upon hearing that. The
Travel-
ers
? He looked at the Markene nearest him. “The Travelers?”
he whispered. “Why would they move against us? Or even care about us?”
The Markene simply stared at him in a tired manner and made no response.
Orin Arn Oran continued, “Even as we speak, the Travel-
ers are coming in their mighty boats to survey our territories.
To see where our defenses are weakest. We must not permit this to happen. We
must not let them see any weakness. That, my dear Markene, is where you come
in. We will restore your Klaa to you now, to tide you over until it is time
for bat-
tle. But when you next hear the sound of the bell, you are to dispatch
yourselves to the outer reaches of our waters. There you are to remain on
station and wait. Wait for a sign of the
Travelers. Sooner or later, their ships will approach. When that happens... y
o u a r e t o s i n k t h e m . S h o w t h e m n o m e r c y .
Annihilate the vessels, send them plunging to the depths.”
“What?!”
The word had burst from Gorkon’s mouth, surprising him almost as much as it
did the Warlord. But in the sea of
Markene, Orin had no idea who had spoken up. He peered out among them,
squinting. “Who said that?” demanded the
Warlord.
Gorkon was terrified. He had no idea what the repercus-
sions might be for speaking back so to the Warlord, but fear gripped him like
a dark fist around the spine. He glanced around at the Markene near him. None
of them appeared to realize that he was the one who had spoken up.
194
PETER DAVID

His mother was there. He spotted her not ten feet away, and she was looking
right at him . . . no. Through him. He could have been there or a hundred feet
below the surface of the water, and it would have made no difference.
“Who was that?” Orin demanded once more, and still no reply was forthcoming.
Finally he grunted in annoyance, no doubt realizing that the Markene were
not of sufficient mental condition to answer the question, even if they knew
it. Perhaps he even decided that the outcry was mere chance, some random
Markene just blurting out an equally random word.
Slowly he paced the end of the Pier, returning to the orig-
inal topic. “You will sink the vessels of the Travelers. How-
ever many there are, that is how many you will sink. You will pull the
Travelers themselves under until they move no more, and then you will bring
their bodies to the Resting
Point. You will leave them there and you will not concern yourself about them
any further. If any of you are cap-
t u r e d... i f a n y o f y o u a r e f aced with questioning by the
T r a v e l e r s... ” H e p aused a moment, and then said, “You will cease
to breathe.”
It was all Gorkon could do to suppress yet another outcry.
For the Markene, the sheer act of living was a significant effort. No

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autonomic reflexes governed their respiratory system; they had to remind
themselves to inhale and exhale.
The most common cause of death among the Markene was simply forgetting to
breathe, typically thanks to the effects of Klaa dulling their reflexes and
self- awareness.
Death by failing to breathe, however, was just about the most agonizing means
by which a Markene could die. It was usually swift, but the pain was
excruciating and brutal as the chest collapsed. So awful a death was it that
Gorkon, even when he had wanted to die, had chosen to beach him-
self instead.
Orin Arn Oran was instructing them to commit suicide lest they provide
information to the Travelers as to who was the source of the orders.
The Markene pro cessed this instruction and then nodded
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
195

in a manner indicating that they more or less understood what was being asked
of them.
“Are there any questions?” the Warlord demanded, but
Gorkon could tell that Orin was looking in his general di-
rection. The Warlord must have ascertained the area from which the earlier
comment had issued, and was hoping that the speaker would make a repeat per
for mance so that he, the Warlord, could determine exactly who was causing
problems.
Gorkon wanted to remove all doubt. He wanted to swim right up to Orin Arn
Oran, whom he had respected until this moment, and cry out, What do you think
you’re doing? Attack the Travelers? You’ll bring the wrath of the Overseer
down upon us all! What sort of mad scheme are you concocting? Is this the
bitch Tulisia’s scheme? It is, isn’t it! And we’re to be your pawns in your
grand scheme to... w h a t ? T e s t t h e l i m i t s of the Travelers’
power? See just how much provocation the
Overseer will endure before he condemns us to depths so low that we’ll all be
crushed? Or are you simply trying to get yourself killed and you’ve decided to
bring company along when you go?
Orin Arn Oran spread wide his arms, his voice rising in power and conviction.
“The Sirene stand at the brink of their darkest time. Those who are intended
merely to watch us are now on the verge of trying to annihilate us. We can-
not allow this. You cannot allow this. The Sirene race as a whole is looking
to you to save us. Are you up to the task?”
Nothing. Silence. The Markene were merely staring blankly at the Warlord. It
would almost have been funny had it not been so depressingly ludicrous.
Clearly annoyed by the lack of response, Orin Arn Oran said, even more
forcefully, “The Sirene look to you! Can you be counted on to—”
“Klaa,” one of the Markene said. Gorkon couldn’t see which one had said it,
but it was with a mournful tone, pa-
thetic and pleading. “Klaaaa.”
The others began to take up the call. “Klaa, Klaa, Klaa,”
and now two, then ten, then most of them were chanting it.
196
PETER DAVID

There was no demand to it. Instead they were lamenting its absence, as a
child pining for a long- lost parent.
Orin stood there for a moment, his hands on his hips, shaking his head in
disgust. For the first time the entire eve -
ning, Gorkon felt some empathy for him. Orin’s disgust and impatience with the
Markene was evident, and it mirrored
Gorkon’s own sentiment toward his people. They were so mighty, granted with

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greater strength than just about any-
thing in the Damned World. Nothing, not even mighty war-
riors such as the Mandraques or Ocular, could withstand the crushing depths
that the Markene could routinely sur-
vive. Yet the Markene were helpless, mindless, pathetic be-
fore their need for the seductive dreams of the Klaa.
“The Klaa,” Orin Arn Oran called out, and that was all he said, but the
Markene immediately lapsed into silence, waiting for him to complete the
sentence. “The Klaa,”
he continued, “will be restored to you in small mea sure.
Here. Now.”
He shrugged slightly and Gorkon saw what he had not quite made out before in
the moonlight, and that was that he was carry ing a satchel over his
shoulder. He reached into it and held up a fistful of the coral upon which
grew Klaa, shimmering the telltale silver. The Markene moaned and reached for
it. With a sweeping swing of his arm, he sent the coral flying into the midst
of the Markene. The ones it landed nearest lunged for it, slamming into each
other, pushing each other away in their desperate attempts to be the first to
grab it.
Orin reached into the bag and threw out more, and more.
Klaa did not float, but it did not have to. None of the
Markene allowed it to sink more than a foot or so before grabbing it up in
their eager, frantically grasping hands.
There was a collective groan of sated joy as they snagged the coral and
started licking it. Several Markene at once attacked each piece, engaging in
communal caressing of the trea sured commodity with their tongues. The entire
scene was borderline orgiastic.
Gorkon drifted back in disgust, watching the water roiling
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197

in the feeding frenzy of the Markene as they threw them-
selves willingly and eagerly back into the comforting arms of the Klaa. “This
much,” Orin was calling out, “is being provided you by me. We will reopen the
gate to you for n o w... b u t when it is shut once more, that will be the
first signal to you that the time to mass against the Travelers is at hand.
And when you hear the bell, that will be the signal to depart. We are counting
upon you, our brothers and sisters of the Markene.”
Brothers and sisters. Willing slaves, you mean. Fools in a grand joke, pieces
in a sinister game, that is all we are to you.
The words seared themselves into Gorkon’s mind, but he dared not speak, for he
feared retribution. He had no idea what the Markene would do at Orin’s
request. If the War-
lord convinced them that Gorkon stood between them and their precious Klaa,
they would doubtless turn upon him and reduce him to a floating red carcass
before he could of-
fer the slightest protest.
“You!”
The single word echoed through the night, and Gorkon’s head snapped around.
There upon the Pier, Orin was point-
ing straight at him, frowning. He was looking, Gorkon real-
ized, at the one Markene who was not indulging in the Klaa.
The one Markene who was instead staring at him with un-
bridled hatred, humiliated on behalf of his people.
Immediately Gorkon dropped beneath the waves, plum-
meting down, down, praying that Orin Arn Oran had not been able to make out
any physical details that would dis-
tinguish him from any other Markene. He left the mass of his people,
enraptured in the glories of Klaa, far behind, and sought peace and solace in

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the inky darkness of the sea below.
198
PETER DAVID

THE UNDERGROUND
i.
“ F a i t h... i n o u r s e l v e s . ”
It had been a good long time since Ulurac, the Spiritu
Sanctum of the Trull, had given a ser vice for the masses in the Hub. Mostly
the spirit had moved him to outlying Trull lands, taking him from pocket to
pocket where the words and ardor that pulsed within him would make themselves
known to the scattered assemblages.
But Ulurac had begun to wonder whether he had been neglectful of the needs of
the Hub. It was where he had grown up, matured to adulthood. He had told
himself that his acolytes could more than provide for the spiritual needs of
the local Trull, and his hand was needed elsewhere. He was starting to think,
though, that that was merely an ex-
cuse to put as much distance between him and both his mother and his painful
memories of his brother as possible.
Ulurac was trying to take this opportunity to reconnect with his own people.
They were not making it especially difficult. Although he had come to
believe that there was a growing rift between him and his people, here they
were now expectantly gathered before him. Dozens upon dozens, packed into the
Chamber of Spiritual Healing, looked up at him with eager, hirsute faces,
hanging on his every syllable.
Word had spread quickly that he would be holding ser vices, and they had not
hesitated to show up for his words of won-
der.
It made him feel stronger, more focused, than he had in a very long time.
He walked back and forth before them, his long cape swirling about him as he
held the edges of the cloak and moved them around subtly. “Faith in
ourselves,” he repeated,

“is what holds us together. It is what elevates us as a race.
Faith in what has gone before. Faith in the philosophies that bind us. It is
that very faith that is lacking in most of the other r a c e s... a n d t h
a t w ill enable us to stay the course and sur-
vive while others fall.”
There were nods of heads, rocking back and forth among the faithful as they
heard his words and took them to heart.
“Above our heads, high above,” he continued, dramati-
cally pointing straight up, “there are races at war with one another who have
not the faintest idea how to live in har-
mony. They attack each other, war with each other, kill each other. But we, my
friends, my brethren... w e k n o w t h e t r u e way of survival. The way
that has been pointed us by our ancestors, and the way that we must point
those who will follow us.”
He saw young Trulls crouching in the front, eagerly hang-
ing on his every word. Ulurac smiled down at them, reach-
ing over to one particularly beaming young fellow and riffling his hair with
his large hand. “We must make the next generation of Trulls respect the
attitudes that have enabled us to survive. To prosper and flourish at a time
when the numbers of other races have been seriously depleted.
“The underground is filled with lines, my people. Thin lines that are faults
intrinsic to the construction of the
Damned World. These lines cause the world around us to quake at random times.
But we, the Trulls, walk those lines, so that where others stumble and fall
and lose their balance during times of stress, we artfully maintain our

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balance.”
“Tell us of the lines, brother.”
The words reverberated through the chamber, and Ulurac scowled as he saw Eutok
at the far end of the room. All heads snapped around to see who had spoken,
and there were gasps and murmurs as they saw the Chancellor, in all his finery
and battle armor, at the entranceway.
Eutok seemed genuinely interested in what Ulurac had to say. Ulurac, however,
knew differently, and he growled in low irritation at the way in which Eutok
had chosen to disrupt his ser vice while seeming supportive of it. The on-
200
PETER DAVID

lookers were unaware that a philosophical battle had just been joined. Only
the combatants themselves knew the truth of it.
It was an effort for Ulurac to continue. He had felt so comfortable in the
fundamental principles he had been es-
pousing. Now, as Eutok stood right there with a hint of a mocking smile,
Ulurac was infernally self- conscious about every word that he was about to
speak. A hesitation of mer-
est seconds seemed a lifetime to him before he managed to recapture his
thoughts and continue with his sermon.
“The lines,” he finally said with effort, “serve to remind us who we are... a
n d what we must be. We do not wish to fall into them when the ground shakes,
but instead to ride them.”
“Did you not just say something to that effect, Spiritu
Sanctum?” inquired Eutok. He sounded almost solicitous, as if concerned that
Ulurac were having difficulty and it was up to him, Eutok, to resolve it.
“Not in those exact words, Chancellor,” Ulurac said stiffly. “Even if I had,
it bears repeating, do you not think so?”
He was furious to see that now all eyes were upon Eutok.
Eutok, walking around making grand gestures, speaking in a booming voice
suffused with reassurance and swaggering confidence. Ulurac knew all too well
that he could make the
Trulls quake in fear . . . but beloved he was not. Eutok, on t h e o t h e r
h a n d...
“By all means,” boomed Eutok. “Taken to its core, you preach caution.”
“I preach the ways that have helped us to survive.”
“But is there not more to life than survival, Spiritu?” in-
quired Eutok innocently, thrown in a quick, respectful bow.
“At least, I have always perceived it to be so. Are there not such
considerations as living life on our terms?”
“That is what we are doing, Chancellor.” A dim haze be-
gan to spot over his eyes. It was a sensation that Ulurac knew only too well.
He had not experienced it for some time, but the moment he felt it, he knew
what it portended.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
201

He focused himself, trying to push it away. “We dictate the terms and we live
by them.”
“Granted, but they are terms that are dictated by fear, are they not?”
He walked with that rolling swagger that so irritated Ulu-
rac. The heads of the congregation were looking back and forth as if they
were sitting and watching some sort of sporting event, with a ball rebounding
between the two
Trulls. This cause Ulurac’s simmering rage to roil even more fiercely. “Fear
does not determine our actions, Chan-
cellor. Wisdom does that.”

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“Meaning we’re wise enough to be afraid.”
Ulurac didn’t even know he was moving until he did it.
He covered the short distance between himself and his brother so quickly that
there were gasps from the Trulls around him. To them, it was as if he was a
blur of speed. He was right in Eutok’s face, and he snarled, “Sometimes it
takes wisdom to be afraid.”
“Well then,” Eutok grinned broadly, “if that is the case, one is forced to the
conclusion that you are the wisest of all the Trulls who live.”
He turned to walk away, and Ulurac heard a voice howl, “Don’t count yourself
among those who live!,”
and it was only belatedly that he realized the voice was his own. It was too
late for such considerations, however, for Ulurac had al-
ready tackled Eutok from behind and slammed him to the rocky floor.
He didn’t know he was doing it. The world was a haze of red to him, and all
that mattered was feeling the flesh of his brother’s neck being squeezed
between his fingers. There was a collective gasp from the onlookers, which he
also did not hear. The one thing he knew he heard beyond any ques-
tion was his brother’s mocking laughter, although later not a single other
Trull would be able to claim that he had heard
Eutok laughing, or making any noise at all other than a thudding sound as
Ulurac kept banging his head against the stone.
202
PETER DAVID

Ulurac had no idea for how long his assault on Eutok continued. All he knew
was that suddenly he was being lifted off his brother, and he was fighting
like a lunatic against the hands that were grasping him. There were yells
and shouts of “Hold on!” and “
You hold on!” and he was sending Trulls flying everywhere. And suddenly the
angry face of his mother, the queen, was in his field of vision. Her hand
seemed to fly and then it was cracking hard across his face. He was halted
then, not just by the impact, but by the realization that it was his mother
doing the hitting.
A gasp rose from the assemblage, and Eurella bellowed, “Out!”
The Trulls who had been attending the aborted ser vice did not need to hear a
second edict by their queen. They practically stumbled over one another in
their haste to va-
cate the chamber. Within moments the only ones left were the two brothers,
Eurella, and the guards. Two of them were helping up Eutok, while the rest
were holding back Ulurac.
His body was quivering with tension. He felt as if his brain was disengaged
completely, and his muscles alone were try-
ing to determine whether he was going to take another swing at Eutok despite
his mother’s admonitions.
And then she was right in his face, her mouth twisted in contempt as she said,
“Is this how you honor the memory of your loved ones? Of Shirella? Of Ulus? Is
it?
Is it?”
The words froze him. Even Eutok, who was several feet away and wiping the
dripping blood from his nose, looked appalled at his mother’s words.
“Highness,” he said, taking care to address her by her title, “I don’t know
that it’s neces-
sary to—”
“Quiet!” she hushed him. Eutok bowed his head slightly, pressing a finger
against the side of his nose to still the flow.
Although she had addressed Eutok, she had never turned her gaze away from
Ulurac. “I am horrified by what I just wit-
nessed. You are supposed to be the spiritual leader of our people? You? Yet
the moment you are provoked—”

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“And why should I tolerate such provocation,” demanded
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
203

Ulurac, “from my own brother? Eh? Tell me that! From my own brother!”
“If not from me,” Eutok replied, “then from who?” Ulu-
rac glared at him wordlessly, but Eutok didn’t seem put off.
“Your problem, Ulurac, is that you are far too accustomed to Trulls trembling
at your every word, bowing and nodding and agreeing with everything you say,
whether they under-
stand it or not . . . and I’ll warrant that more often than you’d think they
do not understand it. Who else but a brother can make you think beyond the
pa ram e ters of the dogma you spout? And you have to start thinking,
Ulurac!
And you as well, Mother,” he said to Eurella. “The Damned
World is changing, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not. And if we do not
change with it, then—”
“You speak of things that you do not know,” Eurella the queen informed him.
“Should I lose my temper with you, I
assure you the consequences for you will be far more dire than one of your
brother’s poundings... w h i ch, by the way,” she added angrily, “I will not
tolerate a repeat of! It is hardly conducive to the welfare of our people to
see their two greatest advisors brawling like children! What do I
h a v e t o d o t o p r e v e n t s u c h... such stupidity?”
“Why don’t you just use the Orb on us, Mother?” Eutok said defiantly. “Perhaps
Ulurac and I are the excuse you’ve been waiting for all these years to employ
it. The Orb will settle matters once and for all, would it . . . not ...? ”
All fell silent at that. Eutok himself looked surprised that he had said it,
and his mother’s face darkened into a truly fearsome scowl.
“If you ever,” Eurella assured him, “bring up the blessed
Orb in such a cavalier manner again... Chancellor or no, son or no... I w
ill kill you on the spot. Nor will I require guards to do it. With these two
hands, which hauled you kicking and mewling into the world, I will dispatch
you from it. Is that clear?”
Eutok slowly nodded, and then tried to rally his defiance.
“If you were truly concerned about our people’s welfare, Mother,” he began.
Then he saw the fierce expression on his
204
PETER DAVID

mother’s face and realized that now was not the time. His lips thinned and he
fell silent.
“You were saying?” she growled in a warning tone.
“Nothing. I was saying nothing.”
“You are quite sure?
“Very much so, yes.”
She gave a curt nod. “Good. Ulurac . . .” She noticed that the guards were
still holding him tightly, even though he was no longer fighting them. She
gestured in annoyance and they released him. He smoothed his robes, casting an
irritated glance at them for form’s sake, even though they had been doing
nothing but their jobs. “Ulurac,” she continued, “you will remain in the Hub
for a time.”
“I . . . had thought to spread the word of Trull teachings to outlying
colonies, as is my habit, Mother,” Ulurac said.
“Yes, I’m sure you did. But I think it wisest if I keep a wary eye on the sort
of teachings you’re spreading.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” he demanded.
She gave him a look that could only be described as the evil eye. “The last

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time I checked into such matters, my dear son, there was no onus upon the
queen to explain herself or her orders. So unless you are aware of something
that I am not . . .” She paused. “Are you?” When his response was barely
audible, she pressed, “What was that?”
“No,” he repeated, louder this time, “I am aware of no such onus.”
“Then we understand each other.”
“And am I to remain in the Hub as well, Mother?” asked
Eutok. The bleeding had stopped and he once more had that endlessly
insufferable look upon his face.
“Come and go as you wish,” she replied. “It would ap-
pear that you and your brother are incapable of sharing even a generous amount
of space without coming to blows.”
“In the interest of accuracy,” Eutok pointed out, “most of the blows have been
purely one way, with myself on the re-
ceiving end.”
“That’s as you deserve,” Ulurac said.
Eurella made a severe “shushing” gesture, but Eutok took
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
205

several steps toward his brother, a pleasant expression frozen on his lips
that was not at all reflected in his eyes.
“That,” he assured his brother coldly, “is what I permit. Do not confuse my
good humor, and my reluctance to fight back to any degree, with an inability
to do so. I am Chan-
cellor of the Trulls, brother dear. I am not without resources and an ability
to defend myself. If I take offense at your offenses... i t w ill not go
well with you.”
“Are you threatening me, Eutok?”
“I threaten no one, Ulurac. I merely advise. That is, after all, my station in
life. I am an advisor. So if you were to con-
s i d e r y o u r s e l f... l u c k y... t hus far in our recent associa-
tions, why... t hen you would be well advised, and my job would be done. Be
aware of this, though.” He took one more step closer, and his voice was low
and angry, permitting emotion to peer through for the first time. “The Piri
are a blight upon this world. If you think they are going to be sat-
isfied with tormenting the Ocular, you are living in a dream world. Sooner or
later they are going to have to be disposed of. In the name of your beloved
neutrality, would you pro-
vide them weapons to arm themselves?”
“ N o... o f c o u r s e n o t , ” U l u r a c s a i d , c a s t i n g
a g l ance at his mother.
“So you claim,” Eutok sniffed, “although I’m not certain how much I believe
your protestations. But consider that, even if that is the case, then you are
not, in fact, advocating neutrality. You are willing to let arms be taken up
against the
Piri. The only question is, do you have the nerve to commit the Trulls, at
long last, to doing it themselves? Or are you content to have others do the
dirty work for you.” He bowed mockingly, turned on his heel with a sweep of
his cape, and walked away.
Ulurac took a step after him, but Eurella firmly set her-
self in his path. “You,” she told him flatly, “do not wish to do that. Go to
your residence, Ulurac. You do,” she added after a moment of his silent
glowering, “remember where it is, do you not?”
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PETER DAVID

“Of course I remember. I burrowed it myself, didn’t I?”

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he demanded.
Her response was the merest bored shrug of her shoulders.
Then she turned and walked away, her guards scurrying af-
ter her.
He stared at the now empty chamber of worship, and couldn’t help but see it as
a meta phor for his life. In viewing it that way, he suddenly felt
uncomfortable in a place that only moments earlier had given him solace.
He made his way out of it and wandered aimlessly through the tunnels, cursing
his brother’s name and actions. Some small part of him told him his ire was
misplaced. That he shouldn’t have let his brother’s words get to him, and he
had brought that . . . that debacle of a ser vice upon himself. But he
ignored that thought, tried to make it go away. After all, did he not have the
right to—at the very least—have the thoughts in his own head conform to
his desires?
Ulurac did not realize where his feet were taking him un-
til he found himself standing in front of it. The burrow before him was
typical of a Trull home. He knew every line, every crevice of it, for he had
bored it himself, a lifetime ago.
Once upon a time, it had been homey and comfortable, and illuminated by the
comforting glow of hotstar lanterns within. Now there was nothing but
darkness. Under ordi-
nary circumstances, another Trull family would have moved into it, for it was
truly quite fine in its depth and evenness.
Plus there was a spring nearby that provided not only the con ve nience of
constant potable water, but perpetual warmth.
A prime burrow in a prime location, the sort to which only the son of a queen
would be able to lay claim.
It seemed an age that he stood outside it. He tried to com-
mand his feet to enter it, but they resisted.
This is absurd.
It’s just an empty burrow, no matter what happened there before. There’s no
reason for you to stand here paralyzed, as if you are not in command of your
life.
He forced himself forward, one unsteady step after the other. When he crossed
the threshold he did so with a sharp
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
207

intake of breath, as if something was going to come out of the darkness and
stab him.
The warm smell of the place hit him first. Paradoxically, it caused him to
relax as he was positive that he could scent his wife and son right there,
right in front of him. His nostrils flared and he hummed softly to himself, a
gentle lullaby that he had once sung to his son. There was no light, the
lanterns long removed to be utilized elsewhere in the underground.
But he had no need of light. His eyes closed, he could see ever so clearly his
beloved Shirella standing before him. She reached out to him, laughing in that
lovely coarse manner of hers. His fingers brushed across the comforting
stubble upon her smiling face, and little Ulus was there, calling out to him,
running up to him in greeting that way he always used to do.
He threw his arms around his father’s leg and sighed content-
edly, because his father was there and all was right and all was perfect
here, beneath the surface of the Damned World.
I will never let you go, his words echoed back to him across the years. There
in the darkness he reached out to them, and his fingers were so close, so
close, and then they passed right through the images of his life mate, of his
child.
Then they were gone, reabsorbed into the air and stuff of memory from which
they had come.

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Ulurac let out a choked sob, sank to the ground, leaning his back against the
wall. In the darkness none saw, and in his isolation none heard, and in his
depths of despair, he would not have cared if either were not the case. His
brother’s words floated back to him:
You’re living in a dream world.
So be it. It was far more comforting than the actual world provided him.
ii.
The tunnel walls whizzed past as Eutok rode in silence upon the Truller car.
It rattled and rolled through the sub-
terranean labyrinth. Eutok steered it with long expertise.
He did not emit war whoops of plea sure at his speed, even
208
PETER DAVID

though that was typical behavior for him. In this instance, he desired to
ride in silence. After all, it was never wise to advertise one’s presence when
one wanted to avoid detec-
tion.
The ride was rocky and inhospitable, since he was in sections of the
Underworld that were relatively unpopulated.
The Trulls had mined many places in the Damned World that had been
unproductive insofar as offerings of minerals that the world had to provide.
Such places, generally referred to as dead zones, were unattractive, so most
Trulls tended to steer clear of them. The tracks for the Trullers, built while
excavation was still under way, would routinely fall into dis-
repair and consequently were rough at best, hazardous at worst. Yet Eutok
traveled them with no less speed and no more caution that he used at any other
time.
Once he had reached his destination, he pulled on the brake and slowed the
Trull car. As he did so, his thoughts flew back to the days when he would go
Trulling with his brother. He could scarcely credit his naïveté, his youth
notwithstanding. During any such Trulling excursion, he would endeavor to
impress Ulurac with his skill and his fearlessness. Truthfully, back then the
act of Trulling had terrified him, but he had been so determined to prove his
bravery to Ulurac that he pretended he loved every mo-
ment of it. The results of his endeavors had not been re-
motely what he’d intended: He had, of course, failed to impress Ulurac, who
continued to hold Eutok in contempt just as he had always done. He had,
however, managed to convince himself of a love for Trulling that persisted to
this day. So it had been a partial victory, albeit one that left a bitter
taste.
Once the Trull car slid to a halt, he vaulted out of it, thumping noiselessly
to the floor and removing a lantern from the place where it was affixed upon
the front of the car.
He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but the light created by the hotstars
seemed paler than he was accustomed to. He tapped it experimentally but no
increase in brightness was generated. He stared at it for a moment more, then
shrugged.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
209

There was always time to investigate the cause for this odd-
ity later. It was probably nothing.
He held it up high before him and slowly made his way through the tunnels.
Even if the hotstar had unthinkably given out completely, plunging him into
darkness, he would not have been daunted. His vision was sharper than that of
most Trulls, so even total absence of light was not the hand-
icap for him that it was for others.

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The silence around him was complete, the only noise be-
ing his own slow, steady breathing. His ears were so attuned to his
surroundings that it seemed inconceivable that any-
one or anything could possibly approach him unawares.
So he was understandably startled when a hand touched him gently upon the
shoulder.
Despite all his combat training, despite all his confidence as a warrior,
despite all that, Eutok still jumped and let out a most un- Trull- like
yelp. He dropped the lantern. It hit the ground and rolled away, falling into
some unseen hole or crevice. The light was gone.
“Oooo,” a voice floated to him from the darkness. “And now you’re helpless.”
“So you would wish,” snarled Eutok, and he lunged in the direction the voice
appeared to be coming from. But there was a rush of air that might have been a
random breeze, or might have been a body moving effortlessly past him. Even
his superb vision needed a few moments to make the transi-
tion from some light to no illumination at all, whereas the creature in the
dark with him needed no such adjustment time.
“Missed me,” came the voice again, and there was a scraping of rock before he
could turn, like clawed toes seek-
ing and finding purchase. He started to turn back toward the voice once more,
and then something hurtled through the air and landed on his back. His broad,
flat feet maintained their position, so he was not knocked over. Instead he
bent slightly under the impact, and then reached around and tried to grab at
the creature on his back. But his arms, despite their
210
PETER DAVID

length, didn’t bend around quite that far back, and so he flailed in futility
at the empty air.
There was movement on his back, and then a quickly darting tongue working its
way into his large, cupped ear.
He felt hot breath against it and moaned, his arms dropping to his side.
“The Chancellor of the Trulls,” the female voice purred i n h i s e a r . “
T h e m i g h t y E u t o k... s o easily overcome. How fortunate your
brother cannot see you now. Better that you’re in the darkness now, eh.”
There was a rustling of fabric, a tearing, and his leather tunic was ripped
away from him. The hair on his chest and back was thick and matted, and thin,
limber arms wrapped around him even as equally powerful legs locked around his
waist. He felt the bare flesh of her against his, and he moaned once more. His
hands sought and found her thighs and he stroked them, his fingers running the
length of them until they were able to cup themselves around her small, firm
buttocks.
Her voice hissed in his ear, and he squeezed, and she trembled. Her feet never
touching the ground, she moved around him so that she was facing him.
He tried to move his face forward to smother her lips with his, but her head
moved back on her slender neck.
“Not yet,” she said. “Tell me how it went.”
“It went as it often goes,” he replied and tried to kiss her once more.
Again she kept him at bay. “Have you convinced them to destroy the Piri?”
“It will take time... ”
“I don’t have time, Eutok,” she snarled, the anger in her voice a stark
contrast to the overtures her body was mak-
ing and continuing to make to him. “I don’t have time,”
she repeated. “What I have is a demented mother who would sacrifice my
sexuality on the altar of her demented traditions.”
“I’m doing all I can,” he said in annoyance. “I lent you
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that digging equipment so you could construct secret tun-
nels to hide from your mother. What the hell happened?”
“She found me with it before I could hide it,” she admit-
ted. “I told her I took it off the body of a dead Trull.”
“So now your people used it against the Ocular, and I’m under suspicion. Maybe
this entire thing is... ”
“Is what?” Abruptly she mashed her breasts against him, her breath a sharp
intake against his ear. “Do you not find these worth a bit of risk? Or do you
not care if my breasts are taken from me? Do you want that to happen?”
“No,” he whispered.
“Should I be rendered incapable of enjoying plea sure?”
She arched her back, and he felt the heat from her loins radi-
ating through him, and it was enough to drive him insane with desire. His own
need was becoming impossible to ig-
nore. It was all he could do not to slam her down right there and thrust
himself into her.
“ N o... t h a t s h o u l d n ’ t... m u s t n o t... ”
“Then make certain it does not. We have barely begun, Eutok, to explore the
full range of sensual delights available to us. No one and nothing should be
permitted to put an end to it, ever. Ever.”
“Ever,” growled Eutok, and then he could not take it any-
more. He fell atop her, devouring her skin, her scent, every-
thing about her.
“Do what ever it takes.”
“I will . . .”
“Stop the Piri. Annihilate them if you have to, if that’s what it takes to
save me.”
“Yes, yes... a n y t h i n g...
anything...
”
She pulled away the last of his clothing, guided him into her, and gasped as
he filled her.
The rest of the world fell away from him, even as Clarinda
Redeye, daughter of the Mistress of the Piri, moaned be-
neath him.
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PETER DAVID

THE FIVE CLANS BORDERLANDS
Jepp was not dreaming, which was preferable as far as she was concerned.
Instead there was simply the cool blackness of her insensate state. Slowly,
however, very slowly, aware-
ness began to creep back to her. The black haze started to dissolve as she
noticed the smell of cooking meat, then the crackling of a fire, and the chill
of the night air. A fleeting burning sensation on her thigh told her that
embers were be-
ing blown about in the breeze.
Tentatively, she opened her eyes. She was lying flat on her back, stretched
out upon the rocky surface upon which they made their camp.
She stared straight up and the large, unblinking eye of an
Ocular was gazing back down upon her. He was chewing on a long, angular bone
that could easily have been a leg, rip-
ping the last bits of meat from it with his sharp teeth.
“Oh, good,” he rumbled. “Dessert has come around.”
Jepp let out a scream that could have shattered glass, had there been any
nearby. The Ocular had to drop what he was eating and clap his hands to his
ears since the shriek was so shrill. “Thunderation!” he cried out. “What in
the name of the Overseer is that noise she’s making!”

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“She’s screaming,” came a sardonic voice from nearby.
“Her kind does that when startled. A fairly high- strung race.”
“Well, make her stop!”
Jepp’s focus was so completely on the Ocular looming before her that she
didn’t recognize the voice from nearby as Zerena’s. But Zerena Foux’s presence
finally dawned upon Jepp when Zerena practically shoved her face into
Jepp’s and snarled, “Stop.”
Jepp was sufficiently startled that she did indeed cease her screaming, her
eyes opened so wide in wonderment that

they seemed ready to bolt from her face. She saw Karsen standing some feet
behind Zerena, shaking his head and saying, “Mother, go easy on her. She’s
having a rough time of it.”
“You would be amazed, Karsen, how little I care for her rough time.”
The brown- eyed Ocular had returned to munching the last bits of meat off
the bone he was holding, but continued to regard Jepp with a degree of
suspicion. The two other
Ocular who had accompanied him simply looked bored.
“The few Morts I’ve encountered in my time,” he said, “none of them were
like her.”
“Lucky you,” grumbled Zerena.
“I . . . I thought you were dead!” Jepp told Zerena, and now she could see
the other Bottom Feeders dotting the en-
campment. Off to one side Gant was pulsating, while Rafe
Kestor dozed and Mingo was making notes in some sort of small book. He glanced
at her often enough to make her re-
alize that what ever he was writing, she was the subject of it.
“Obviously, we’re not,” said Zerena.
“I . . . thought he ate us! Him and his—” She pointed a quivering finger at
the Ocular. “He said he was going to!”
Now Karsen was at her side and he touched her face af-
fectionately. “He was just having sport with you. No one thought you would
pass out dead away like that. I was go-
ing to try and wake you, but you seemed so peaceful, s o... ” a n d h e s h
r u gged.
“So you just let me lie there?”
“You would never have come to any harm,” the brown-
eyed Ocular assured her.
“No?”
“No. You see, in order to guarantee your safety, I urinated on you so as to
mark you as my property. None would dare touch you.”
Jepp’s first instinct was to let out a shriek and to run and keep running
until she could find a body of water. But then she saw the studious deadpan
expression on the giant, and
Karsen’s rolling of eyes, and the snicker and shaking of
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PETER DAVID

head from Mingo. And Jepp actually laughed softly then.
“ V e r y... a m u s i ng. I haven’t . . . met many Ocular, really, but I
can see you have a... a u n i que sense of humor.”
“I have been told such.” He turned his attention to Zer-
ena. “Am I required to present myself, Zerena Foux? Or will you as head of
your clan attend to the proper protocol of things?”
Zerena flashed a look of annoyance, but then obviously resigned herself to
proceeding in an appropriate manner.
“Jepp of the Damned World,” she said, “I have the honor of presenting to you
Nagel, lord of the high tower, the One-

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Eyed King, ruler of the Ocular. Honored Nagel, this is Jepp, an unremarkable
creature.”
“Mother!”
“What?”
said Zerena in annoyance.
“Ignore her,” said Nagel as he tossed aside the bone. “It is a plea sure to
meet you, Jepp. I understand that you came to be with these Bottom Feeders as
a result of having been salvaged.”
“Yes, Highness,” Jepp said, choosing a form of address that seemed
appropriate. There was still a fundamental fear, down in the base of her
spine, that the giant would reach over, pick her up, and pop her in his mouth
like an after-
dinner tidbit. But the more she studied him, the more she saw—or at least
thought she saw—a basic sweetness in the single eye regarding her. “Karsen
rescued me from a pair of
Mandraques.”
“Karsen did that?” The brow above Nagel’s one eye lifted. “Truly? No offense
intended, Karsen, but you never struck me as much of a fighter.”
“I freely admit that,” Karsen agreed. “But there is some-
thing about Jepp that—I don’t know—brings out the ag-
gressor in me.”
Nagel snorted in amusement at that and looked at Zer-
ena. “No wonder you keep her around. You always were the pragmatist, Zerena
Foux.”
“ H o w... l ong have you known her?” asked Jepp.
“Oh, several full cycles around the sun it’s been, has it
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215

not, Zerena?” She nodded. “We had some dealings, she and
I, and I did her a favor at the time.”
“What favor?”
“I allowed her to live,” Nagel said, and Jepp looked for some sign that he was
jesting. This time, however, there was none such. Jepp had the cold feeling
that he was quite seri-
ous. That unease in the base of her spine began to return. “I
felt,” continued Nagel, “that she might be of some use to me in the future.”
“And a solid instinct it was,” Zerena assured her. “In fact, I’m going to lend
some validity to that belief right now.”
“How so?”
“By telling you that your mission to the Trulls is a fool’s errand.” She had
been sitting near the fire, but now she stood and moved away from it, drawing
closer to Nagel and speak-
ing with conviction. “They turned you down once. They re-
main steadfastly neutral. What makes you think that you can convince them
otherwise?”
“I will find a way,” he said firmly. “I will barter. I will beg. And, if it
comes to it, I will beat their thrice- damned ruler to death with my bare
hands and take the digging tech-
nology that I require.”
Zerena looked taken aback. “You would risk the wrath of the Firedraques... e
v e n t h e T r a v e l e r s , p e r haps the Over-
seer himself . . .”
“I will take what ever risks are necessary.” He said it with what sounded to
Jepp like a deep- rooted anger that was aimed not at anyone present but at
someone who was nowhere around.
“I . . .” Jepp began, and when all eyes turned to her, she cleared her throat
ner vous ly. “I . . . don’t understand what we’re talking about. Or what
you’re talking about. I’m not trying to thrust myself into the conversation,

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you under-
stand, but—”
Zerena groaned. “Why do you act so damned deferential all the time?”
“A lifetime of practice,” she said without hesitation.
“My niece,” Nagel told Jepp, “was kidnapped by the Piri.
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PETER DAVID

You know of the Piri?” When she nodded, shivering slightly as she did so,
Nagel continued, “They dragged her away un-
derground. If she is not dead by now... she may well wish she were. My
people’s lives and happiness are overshad-
owed by those animalistic scavengers, and I would seek help in finding a means
of disposing of them. My foremost advisor suggested the Mandraques... ”
Jepp laughed. Then she saw the look on his face and flushed in embarrassment.
“Oh. Dear. That . . . was not an-
other joke.”
“No,” said Nagel, sounding none too pleased, his words so frozen that they
could have been formed from ice. “It was not.” Then, perhaps feeling a bit
sorry for Jepp, he con-
tinued, “For what it’s worth, I never seriously considered it although he no
doubt thinks I’m on my way to the Man-
draques even now. I’ve elected this course instead.”
“Certainly preferable,” Jepp assured him, nodding briskly. “The Greatness
always said he loved treaties and al-
liances, because it always gave his ally a false sense of se-
curity. Although,” and she frowned, recalling, “I think he also said that any
sense of security was always, by defini-
tion, false.”
“The Greatness,” Mingo called over, “sounds like one of the profound
philosophers of our time. A pity I’ll never get the chance to meet him and
maybe, just maybe, rip his damned head off.”
“A true tragedy, that,” intoned Nagel.
Silence ensued. During that time, Jepp stared long and hard at Nagel, so much
so that he noticed it and began star-
ing back at her. She did not, as he might have expected, turn away or appear
daunted by him. Instead she studied him with great thought, as if pondering
something vast and inef-
fable.
“Would you care to share with me,” he said finally, “what’s going through your
mind?”
Zerena cast a bewildered glance between Nagel and Jepp.
“Why would you possibly care?”
“Because,” Nagel said reasonably, “she seems to have
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
217

something to say, and I find myself curious to hear it. Do you have a problem
with that, Zerena Foux?”
“No, no... n o t a t a l l , ” Z e r ena replied quickly. “It’s your time
to waste as you see fit.”
“I just . . .” The seated Jepp took a deep breath and leaned forward,
intertwining her fingers and wrapping them around her knees. Tilting her head
slightly, causing her long hair to cascade around her shoulders, she said,
“Tell me about the Piri. Tell me all you know about them.”
Nagel did so. He spoke of their earliest encounters, of their animalistic
nature, of their brutality, of their aversion to light. “It is said that
light—sunlight particularly—can flay the very skin from their bodies,” Nagel

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told her. “My people are blind in it, dislike it intensely, but the Piri sup-
posedly cannot tolerate it at all.”
Karsen was watching her with keen interest, and it was clear why. There was
something different about Jepp in the way she was interacting with Nagel. It
was as if her fear and her cowering had become secondary to her curiosity. In
a low voice, Karsen said to Mingo, who was watching the proceedings with
interest, “Why do you think she wants to know so much about the Piri?”
“Who can say?” Mingo said, shrugging. “Morts are a paradoxical group. But the
one indisputable thing about them was that they had an insatiable curiosity
about damned near everything. One certainly has to give them credit for that .
. .” Then he thought about it a moment and amended, “Actually, no, I guess one
doesn’t have to give them credit for it since, in the end, it availed them
very lit-
t l e... ”
“Quiet!”
There was surprise on the faces of all the Bottom Feeders in earshot, because
it was Jepp who had spoken. Even she appeared startled at the firmness with
which she had issued an order. Nagel looked impressed. “She has more spirit
than
I initially thought, Karsen. I can see why you would be en-
amored of her.”
“I’m not enamored of her,” Karsen said quickly.
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PETER DAVID

Jepp half turned and looked at him. “You’re not?” There was no sound of
disappointment in her voice. It just seemed as if she were inquiring.
“No! I’m not!”
“Oh.” She pro cessed that information even as Zerena stared at her son
without knowing quite what to think about him. “Oh,” she said again, and then
she turned back to
Nagel as if Karsen had not spoken. “My apologies, mighty one, if I have been
asking too many questions... ”
“No, no, that’s quite all right,” Nagel assured her. “One never knows where
questions—”
“The Orb.”
The two words were meaningless both to Zerena and to
Karsen. Zerena glanced over at Mingo, who gestured help-
lessly in a way that indicated he had no clue what she was talking about.
That was when Jepp noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that Gant had ceased
his random bubbling and was now oozing in their general direction. She didn’t
have the faintest clue why was he was coming over, or if he even was doing it
deliberately. For all she knew he had fallen asleep and was merely seeping
toward them without any conscious direction.
Nagel, meantime, was sitting straight up and Jepp had heard his sharp intake
of breath. “The Orb?” he repeated back to her.
“Yes. The Orb. It is a source of . . . of great light,” she said, choosing
each word delicately. “I know that much.”
“How do you know that much?” demanded Zerena.
“I don’t know.”
The Laocoon threw her hands up and stomped away, shaking her head in
frustration. But she was back barely a heartbeat later. “You,” she said, “are
the most frustrating—”
“Zerena Foux,” Nagel interrupted her, and his tone was different. Deeper, more
threatening, and the change was not lost upon his guards, who clearly realized
that something was up. “I will thank you not to speak to her again in that
manner.”
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“But—”
“I will thank y o u... n o t t o speak to her . . . in that man-
ner
.”
Zerena was clearly about to toss off another dismissive response, and then
apparently realized that matters had shifted in a way that she did not
entirely comprehend. She did know enough, however, to defer to the huge,
impossibly muscled creature that was more than twice as tall as anyone there,
and backed up by two others of his kind even bigger than he. Her lips thinned
in that way they had when she was impatient about something, but then she did
something that
Jepp had never seen: She bobbed her head and just sort of slunk away, like a
whipped animal, although not before casting a furious look at Jepp.
Jepp felt an unaccustomed sensation, and she realized with a dim awareness
that it was the feeling of triumphing over someone else. More... i t w a s
t h e f e e l i n g o f b e i n g treated with respect. Granted, Karsen had
been nothing but kind to her, but the others had acted as if she was someone
to be barely tolerated. Even they were looking at her differ-
ently, their perception of her being filtered through the prism of the
Ocular’s attitude toward her.
Jepp was amazed at the turnaround. It was, to her percep-
tion, mere minutes earlier that she had been utterly terrified of the Ocular.
Now she was starting to feel as if this Nagel fellow was perhaps her best
friend in the whole Damned
World.
Nagel studied her levelly for a full minute. One would have thought he knew
great, deep secrets and was trying to decide whether or not he should voice
them. None of the other Bottom Feeders dared to speak, although Gant had oozed
even closer. Jepp had to think by that point that Gant was approaching
purposefully. Perhaps even he was curious as to what Nagel was going to say
next.
“You do not know much of your own race, do you,” he fi-
nally asked Jepp.
“Very little,” she admitted. “I cannot read our older writ-
i n g s... n o t t h a t i t w o u l d m a t t e r . T h e G r e a t
ness would al-
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PETER DAVID

ways take care to burn what ever human writings he stum-
bled over. He spoke of how knowledge was power. He said it as if it were a
very bad thing.”
“To some, it’s the worst thing of all,” Mingo remarked.
Nagel nodded. “Certainly to those in power, knowledge is to be feared. At
least, to those who have power but are in-
secure in it.”
“But you,” Jepp said slowly, “are not insecure. Are you, honored one.”
“No,” said Nagel, shaking his head, the edges of his mouth twisting just a
bit. “No, I am not at all insecure. And
I have acquired more books of Mort—of human,” he amended, seemingly out of
deference to Jepp, “writing than quite possibly anyone else in all the
Twelve Races, or even the Overseer himself. And many of these writings I
cannot read, but some I can, and some I have, to the best of my ability. And I
have seen reference to an Orb that has some of the properties of which you
speak. It is called something like ‘the Orb of the Trinity.’”
“The Orb of the Trinity,” Jepp repeated with reverence. It sounded so
important. Then she frowned. “What is a ‘Trin-

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ity’?”
“I am not certain,” Nagel admitted. “As I said, my ability to comprehend the
writings is not the most reliable. Many of the words are confusing to me, and
there are entire seg-
ments, filled with numbers and complex statements and such, that are
indecipherable.”
“Is there only one of these Orbs? What does it do ex-
actly?”
Nagel chuckled to himself. It was a very strange noise, a sort of deep
wheezing, and the only reason she recognized it as laughter rather than, say,
that he was choking on some-
thing was that he was smiling as it was happening. “You ask many questions for
one who some believe is ignorant.” He cast a glance at Zerena as he said that,
but she made no re-
ply.
“I
am ignorant, great Nagel Highness sir,” replied Jepp, adding as many
flourishes to Nagel’s title as she could.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
221

“How else to relieve myself of my ignorance except to ask questions?”
“How else indeed?” he concurred. “To answer your ques-
tions and banish your ignorance . . . there is more than one
Orb. Or at least there were. Once upon a time, there were many of them. As
for now? Who can say? As to the Orb’s purpose: Well, there are more
contradictions in my readings.
Alternately, the Orb is described as being able to provide in-
credible, searing light . . . and yet, it can also bring darkness, producing a
cloud so vast, so monstrous in proportion, that it can literally block out the
sun. Some readings even talk about some type of ‘winter’ that would follow the
use of an
Orb. Me, personally . . . I like winters. Far prefer them. The cold air is
invigorating, and the white particles that fall from o n h i g h... t h e s
n o w... i s m o s t p l easant.”
“A single Orb can do all that?” Zerena asked.
Nagel turned his attention to her. “You sound doubtful.”
“I do not discount the notion that a device that accom-
plishes so many things—light, dark, warmth, cold, changes in season—that
such a device could exist. But I very much doubt the humans could have made
one, because it sounds magical in nature. And humans knew nothing about
magic.”
“Perhaps not,” suggested Mingo. “Or perhaps they sim-
ply had a magic system that is unlike any we’ve encoun-
tered before. Is that reason to dismiss it? Or perhaps to, instead, fear it?”
“Not you, too, Mingo!” Zerena said with growing dis-
g u s t . “ Y o u k n o w t h e M o r t s a r e... ” T hen she became
aware of Nagel’s glare burning a figurative hole in her head.
“ ...m o s t r e s o u r c e f u l , a n d s o p e r haps might have
devel-
oped this... m a g i c . O r t ech. Or something.”
“Can you imagine it?” Nagel said. He began pacing, and
Jepp could tell that there was growing excitement in him which he was almost
afraid to acknowledge. Jepp fancied that his every step caused the ground to
tremble slightly.
“One device that could solve all our problems. That could turn our lives
around. It truly is tempting to think of it as magic.”
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“I’m not entirely sure I’m following, Highness,” Karsen said. “How would
it—?”
“He’d use it to destroy the Piri,” Zerena told him.
He pivoted, moving so quickly that Jepp, even though she was seated on the
ground, jumped back a little in concern.
“Yes. Exactly. Hope for my people after all this time, to have our lives move
toward a golden age. It seems too good to be true.”
“It is my experience,” Mingo said in his characteristic pedantic drawl, “that
most things that seem too good to be t r u e... generally are.”
“You would dash even my slightest hopes, Minosaur?”
demanded Nagel. “The incandescence of the Orb, projected into the hidey-
holes of the Piri . . . the power of the sun it-
self ripping their bodies to pieces, leaving them scattered bits of ash there
beneath the ground... f o l l o w e d b y a c l o u d that blocks out the
sun for the rest of my people so they can live happy, fruitful lives, free of
being preyed upon, free of blindness... ”
“Mighty Nagel, this is madness!” Zerena told him, un-
able to hide her obvious annoyance with Jepp. “This... h u -
m a n... i s g i v i n g y o u f a l s e hope! I mean,” she waved her
hands aimlessly, “so you’ve read of this magical, mystical
Orb that humans made. It still remains the stuff of legend, even though she
makes declarations that one of them can make all your problems just go away!
Where are you going to find one of these Orbs, anyway?”
“ T h e... T r u l l . ”
The voice that had spoken was thick and syrupy. It was
Gant who had spoken, having coagulated several feet away.
It looked to Jepp as if he were trying to manufacture a body for himself in
order to converse with them. A “projection”
of sorts had emerged from the middle of the glob that was
Gant, rising to about four feet in height, like a gelatinous stalagmite on the
floor of a cave. It swayed gently in the night air. Jepp sensed that
maintaining any sort of shape, even something as rudimentary and unappealing
as this, was a huge strain for Gant. She couldn’t even begin to
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
223

imagine how he was manipulating his non ex is tent tongue and vocal cords
to form sounds, even in as slow and labored a manner as he was managing. But
he was definitely doing so.
There was stunned silence, and then Nagel focused all the intensity of his
single eye upon Gant. “The... T r u l l ? ”
He was not deliberately mocking Gant’s mea sured delivery, but instead was
merely trying to accept the words that his hearing was telling him had been
spoken. “The Trull . . .
h a v e... one of these... t h e s e... O r bs?”
“ T h e y d i d... a t l e a s t , ” s a i d Gant. His manufactured body
shifted, as if he were settling himself in for the purpose of telling a long
story. “Eurella... had one. She... t r e a s u r e d i t... a b o v e a
l l... o t h e r t h i n g s... ”
“Eurella? Their . . . queen?” Each word he spoke sounded harsher, trembling
with barely contained fury, and then
Nagel brought a fist around and smashed it down upon a rock. Jepp let out a
little shriek, concerned for Nagel’s welfare, and then she saw the
rock—which was at least a foot tall and half again as wide—crumble into
rubble. The impressiveness of the display was not lost upon her.
“Their queen,” continued Nagel, mea sur ing each word, “the bitch who
refused to help us search for my niece . . .

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it now turns out possesses a device that could exterminate t h e m f o r a l
l t i m e... a n d she didn’t see fit to mention it to me?”
“She mentions it . . . to no one,” said Gant, his body twing-
ing in sympathetic time to his voice. “It is . . . her trea sure.
S h e s t a r e s a t h e r... r e fl e c t i o n... i n i t , a n
d... w o r s h i p s i t... b e l i e v i n g i t t o b e... a g i f t
f r o m t h e... g o d s... ”
“And how would you know of this, Gant?” Mingo de-
manded. “If Eurella mentions it to nobody... ”
“ I a m n o t... o r r a t h e r... w a s n o t a l w a y s... a
nobody...
I w a s... o f t h e P h e y , ” Gant said, and he trembled a bit in what
Jepp had to assume was sheer pride. “When one is of t h e P h e y... t h e r
e i s n o t r e a s u r e... b u r i e d t o o deep . . . no secret .
. . held too dear . . . that my people and I . . . could
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PETER DAVID

n o t fi n d a w a y... t o l e a r n o f i t . None has secrets . . .
from the Phey.” Jepp could see that he was beginning to lose con-
trol of what ever “muscles” he had used to manufacture this form. He was
starting to shake, and a low moan arose from h i m . “ I w a s... I w a
s... g r e a t... i n m y d a y... ”
Nagel came in close to him, speaking anxiously, deter-
mined to learn all that Gant knew on the subject. “Did you see it yourself?”
“Yes. It was... beautiful . . . shining metal . . . she called it ‘my
light,’ although it was not . . . illuminated... I h e a r d her . . .
whispering to it . . . tired... ”
“She sounded tired?”
“ I a m... I d o... s o... ”
“Thunderation, Gant! Do you know where she kept it?”
“ I w a s P h e y... w e n t w h e r e I... w i s h e d... l ook at m
e... g o d s... l ook at me... ”
And with that Gant gave up trying to hold his body to-
gether. The small upward projection that he had created dis-
solved down into itself with a low, long, drawn- out moan that almost
sounded as if he was releasing his dying breath.
He splashed down, sending small bits of goo flying. Some of it landed on
Jepp’s thigh, and she made a sound of dis-
gust while trying to brush it away.
That was when the bits of Gant’s body that had landed upon Jepp began to roll
off of their own accord. Jepp, who by all guesses from her companions should
have been screaming just then, instead gazed with fascination upon the bits of
Gant that were departing her slender, darkly tanned body. Then they rolled
off and away from her, being reab-
sorbed into the truly bizarre entity into which Gant had been metamorphosed.
“This is fate,” said Nagel.
“What is...? ” Z e r ena asked, and then Jepp saw her face beginning to pale.
“Oh, you cannot be serious.”
“He cannot be serious about what?” asked Mingo, look-
ing from one to the other. “About what can he not be seri-
ous?”
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225

Jepp was confused as well, feeling she had somehow missed an entire section of
the conversation. Nagel noticed her bewilderment, and then she let out a small
“Eep!”

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as he reached over and placed one of his huge hands on each of her upper arms.
Had he brought his hands together, he could easily have crushed her between
them. His face drew closer and when he spoke, his breath washed over her. It
was so powerful that it was everything she could do not to faint.
“Do you believe in destiny?” he demanded urgently.
“Nagel, please, with all respect, you cannot possibly—”
Zerena started to say.
He ignored her. “Do you?” he asked Jepp once more.
Jepp’s emotions regarding Nagel had seesawed back into the direction of
intimidation. “Do... d o y o u w a n t m e t o ? ”
“I just want your honest opinion!”
“I haven’t got one!” she wailed. “The only opinion I have that matters to me
is that I don’t want you to kill me!”
Nagel stared at her, then shook his head and released her.
She sagged to the ground, and Karsen went to her and put an arm around her. It
was comforting, but she felt confused and humiliated and not at all desirous
of any sort of comfort. She shook off his arm and drew her knees up, peeking
over them with trepidation at the Ocular.
“It doesn’t matter,” Nagel said at last. “All that matters is that I believe
in destiny. I have believed in it for a good, long time.” He looked up toward
the stars, and Jepp could actually see their twinkling reflected in his large
eye. “I be-
lieve that the Twelve Races were destined to take this
Damned World from the humans, for your kind—no offense intended, Jepp—was
not using it to its full potential. And I
believe that destiny led me here, to the group of you, so that you could
tell me what I needed to know. About the exis-
tence of the Orb... ”
“Nagel, please—”
“And, Zerena Foux,” he interrupted her, “I believe that destiny will support
you as well, as you brave all odds to ob-
tain the Orb for me.”
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PETER DAVID

“Uh, excuse me, Your Magnificence,” Mingo said. He had been perched atop an
outcropping, but now he hopped off it, thudding to the ground below, landing
in a crouch. He tilted his head and “huffed” slightly through his oversized
nostrils. “Did you say—?”
“I did.”
“He did,” affirmed Zerena, looking none too pleased. “As
I had a feeling he was going to. I knew you were going to, Nagel,” she
continued, dropping all endeavors to add hon-
orific titles to him. “I knew you, in your desperation, were going to try
and do this.”
“I am not going to ‘try’ anything, Zerena Foux,” Nagel assured her. “I am
telling you and you will do it.”
“And I am telling you,” she shot back, “that we are defi-
nitely not—”
He growled. It was a low and horrible sound, and it looked as if his eye
were about to pop out of his head. Jepp could see a network of small red veins
lining the edges of it. From behind him, his two guards rose, and they had
pulled out monstrous clubs from holders on their backs. They were gently
tapping the clubs in their open palms.
“—going to... e liminate... a n y possibility . . . with-
out . . . discussing it,” Zerena finished lamely. Trying to regroup, she
spoke quickly, “But certainly you see the in-
sanity of what you’re asking.”
“I see only someone who continues to live because of my generosity,” Nagel

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reminded her. “I had you helpless, Zer-
ena. I had you dead to rights, and the right to have you dead.”
“What did she do?” Jepp whispered to Karsen. “What did she do that Nagel was
ready to kill her?” Karsen simply gave her a look that said
You don’t really want to be asking that.
“But I did not do so,” Nagel reminded Zerena. “I did not employ my right as
ruler of the Ocular. On that night long ago, I didn’t fully understand myself
why something within me prompted me to release you. Now I know. It was
destiny, preparing itself even then to dedicate you to a higher calling.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
227

I am issuing that call now, and you are sworn upon the honor of yourself and
your clan to attend to it. You swore an oath then in exchange for my releasing
you and your lot. You must honor that oath now, unless you desire to suffer
the consequences of breaking it.”
“The consequences?” Zerena was standing upright now, bravely facing off
against Nagel even though Jepp knew the
Ocular could annihilate her with minimal effort. Her build and weight might
have daunted other Laocoon, and cer-
tainly humans such as Jepp, but they struck no fear in the heart (hearts?) of
a towering Ocular. “What consequences?
That I die at your hands? As opposed to what? Dying at the hands of the Trull?
That will certainly be no pleasant expe-
rience, I can tell you. The Trull have no love for strangers in general and
Bottom Feeders in par tic u lar. They like to pick and choose to whom they
sell their weapons, and they de-
spise the fact that we pick up their weapons from their fallen customers and
take them for our own. We can’t ex-
actly go marching into the Underground, because they’ll kill us as soon as
look at us, and—”
“Sneak in,” Nagel said easily. “Gant, after all, must know ways in and out. He
said it himself: He is of the Phey, and nothing was hidden from him or his
kind.”
“But he’s not his kind anymore, in case you haven’t no-
ticed,” Karsen spoke up in exasperation.
“This is folly, most highly honored one,” Mingo said. He tried to adopt a
casual, chatting tone, as if he and Nagel were two very old buddies babbling
about matters of no conse-
quence. “Granted, Zerena owes you her life. Granted, she is bound by matters
of honor for which even humble Bottom
Feeders such as ourselves have nothing but respect. But why would you waste
our debt to you on a . . . a suicide mis-
sion?”
“ S u i c i d e...? ” J epp was definitely not liking the sound of that.
No one acknowledged her ner vous repetition. “Whether it is suicide or not is
up to you, Minosaur,” Nagel said, his eye narrowing. Jepp had a feeling that
Nagel had little
228
PETER DAVID

patience or liking for Minosaurs . . . and possibly for Bottom
Feeders as a group, or perhaps even for this clan especially.
“But if you ask me, I do not believe that destiny brought us together in this
time and place, simply so that you could die on my behalf.”
“Destiny is a thousand laughs,” Mingo said, unenthused.
“And every single one of them is at our expense.”
“Nagel.” Zerena was trying her best to sound reasonable.

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“Putting aside for a moment our own skins—a considera-
tion I do not diminish lightly—let us say that we succeed in this mad
endeavor. Let us say that we obtain this Orb for you. Have you given any
thought to the possibility that you are dealing with magicks or tech or what
ever else that you may, in fact, have no control over? Poor Gant there,” and
she pointed in the direction of the seeping puddle of matter, “is living proof
of how such power can be turned against one. You seek to unleash the power of
this Orb and you don’t know for certain if, once you do so, it is not going to
rebound against you. You could,” she gestured helplessly, “you could wipe out
your people in your efforts to save them! Have you thought of that?”
“I have,” Nagel said, although Jepp in listening to him wasn’t entirely sure
that he, in fact, had. “And I do not be-
lieve it to be a serious problem. Why in the world would the humans produce a
weapon that could not, in some manner, be controlled? A device that would
annihilate its user along with its victim. It makes no sense; no sense at
all.”
“They’re Morts. They didn’t have to make sense,” replied
Zerena.
“You haven’t spent as much time with their writings as I
have.”
“And you haven’t spent as much time with one of them as
I have,” and Zerena cast an irritated glance at Jepp. “Al-
though if you’d like to remedy that by taking this one off our hands, I
wouldn’t say nay.”
Nagel shook his head. “They were—are,” he amended in deference to Jepp, “a
people who believed passionately in life. That much I’ve gleaned. They spent
entire documents
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
229

pondering its meaning. I simply don’t believe that they would create a device
that would just obliterate all life around it, indiscriminately. Humans simply
couldn’t be that . . . that stupid.”
“I actually think we can,” Jepp said tentatively, but Nagel didn’t seem to
hear her.
“If it is a weapon,” he said, “then there must be a way to aim it and focus
its power upon a target. And I intend to aim it at the Piri and use it to the
full extent of its abilities.
And you are going to enable me to do that. You are going to obtain the Orb
from the Trulls. You will bring it back to me at Feend, and even if our
problems are not resolved in time to save my niece, gods forbid, we will have
assured that my people will be forevermore spared the torments of the
Piri.”
“
We will have assured that?” Zerena said in open aston-
ishment. “The ‘we’ which is comprised of us will have risked their necks on a
dubious mission for a questionable prize. What about us being spared torments
by not having to participate in this potential debacle?”
“Your fates do not concern me,” Nagel assured them, “except where they overlap
with my needs, which in this in-
stance is the case. Gant has been down there. He will lead you there, and can
doubtless find hidden tunnels and secret passages that will get you where you
want to go. Trulls love to tunnel. Find a tunnel and use it to your advantage.
Find the Orb, get it, and get out. Do you have any questions?”
“Of course! But where to begin? How—”
“I said,” he repeated, warning dripping from every sylla-
ble, “do you have any questions?”
She took a deep breath, the tone of his voice clearly not lost upon her.
Nevertheless she said, “What if we refuse?”

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“If you refuse,” he told her, sounding quite reasonable, “then you will be in
violation of the oath you swore to me.
You will humiliate your ancestors going back ten genera-
tions, and your descendants running forward another ten.”
“I can live with that,” Zerena assured him.
230
PETER DAVID

“Also, my guards and I will devour you and your clan members, right now.”
“That,” she admitted, “becomes more problematic.”
“No, but . . .” Jepp started to say, “he’s joking... h e — ”
Then she saw Karsen grimly shaking his head. “He... i s n ’ t joking?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?” he said.
“No,” admitted Jepp, “but then, you didn’t look like it be-
fore, and you were—”
“This time, I am not,” he assured her. His level, piercing gaze swept the
assembled Bottom Feeders. Then he held up both his hands, extending all ten
fingers. “You have twice this many turns of the Damned World to penetrate the
land of the Trulls, obtain the Orb, and bring it to me. If, Zerena
Foux, you are interested in being a creature of honor, you will abide by this.
If, Zerena Foux, you and yours are inter-
ested in not being hunted down upon failing to return, and subsequently being
torn to shreds and served to my people in small, dripping chunks, you will
abide by this. Do you understand?”
“May I speak candidly to you, Nagel . . . as someone who cares almost as much
about you as she does her own skin?”
He gestured in a generous manner. “As you wish, Zer-
ena.”
“It is my opinion that you are being driven to the edge of madness over what
has happened to your niece. Further, it is my opinion that you have not
accepted the Way of
Things.”
“Really,” said Nagel hollowly. “And that Way would be what?”
“That what you desire does not exist. You want every-
thing perfect for your people, and such a thing cannot be.
That is true destiny. Every positive must have a negative.
Every light must have its dark. Attempting to bask only in the light will send
you into permanent darkness . . . but not in the way you hope. Instead you
will end up only with the
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
231

darkness of hopelessness and oblivion. You must either ac-
cept the situation that you have, and live as best you can with the Piri . . .
or you must relocate your people to some-
place less advantageous, but that will leave the Piri far be-
hind. Those are your reasonable choices. What you are foisting upon us, the
situation that you are burdening us w i t h... t h a t i s n o t r
easonable. That is the unreasoning de-
termination of the pathetically desperate. Of someone who is not rational. And
have you not always believed yourself to be the most rational of beings?”
“Yes. Yes, I have,” Nagel said slowly. His face darkened.
“That was before I stopped sleeping.”
“Stopped—?”
“Kept awake every night by the screams of my niece.
They echo in my memory, and they will not stop, and I must stop them . . .
which means you are going to stop them. You will stop them. You will do as I
say, or you will die. Now, is there anything else to say?”

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“No,” Zerena sighed. “No, I suppose not.”
“Excellent.” He clapped his hands together so loudly that
Jepp had a ringing in her ears from it. “I will return to
Feend to await your good news. And Zerena... don’t fail in your mission so
that I have to go to the Trulls myself. Oth-
erwise it will not end well for you.”
“But why us?” It was Zerena’s last, desperate gasp of frustration. “Why not
just do your dirty work yourself?”
“Because,” said Nagel, sounding amused, “no one should put himself at risk
when he can use agents to do his bid-
ding.”
He smiled at her, displaying his rows of sharp teeth, and then he strode away,
the ground rumbling beneath him. His guards followed him, glancing over their
shoulders as they went, still tapping their palms with the clubs as if
frustrated that they hadn’t had the opportunity to utilize them.
The Bottom Feeders looked at one another in silence.
Finally Jepp said, “I thought he was kind of sweet, actu-
ally.”
232
PETER DAVID

Zerena stared at her, then turned to Mingo, chucked a thumb in Jepp’s
direction, and said, “Be sure to kill her be-
fore we break camp.”
The mighty Ocular runs from the pathetic “humans”...
for that is what the pathetic denizens of the equally pa-
thetic world choose to call themselves, apparently. He can barely sound the
word out: “hoomun.” Indeed, there are pronunciation difficulties for many of
the creatures that populate the place to which the Banished have been exiled.
The creatures, and the lands in which they live.
The Ocular does not know the name of the par tic u lar land through which
he has been fleeing. But he does know that the natives are especially vicious,
pursuing him with unrelenting vigor. He has no idea how many of them there
are, but they seem to be coming from everywhere. No mat-
ter where he has hidden himself, no matter how far he has run, they always
find him. Granted, his sheer size makes hiding difficult. Not for the first
time does he envy the damnable Piri, who excel at finding small caverns or
dig-
ging their way into catacombs within which they can hide.
He has little doubt that the Piri who arrived the same time he did will manage
to survive far longer than he or his kind. But even they will be flushed out
and destroyed sooner or later. These humans are most ingenious at de-
stroying that which they do not understand.
His breath heavy in his chest, the Ocular finds a group of rocks and flattens
himself against them, trying to slow the hammering of his heart. He looks
toward the sky, and imagines that the Banishers from his home dimension are
looking down upon him, laughing and snickering at his dire straits.
“The final solution,” he mutters to himself, shaking his
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
233

head in disbelief that it has come to this. “Bastards. That the bastards would
do this to us, simply because there are races that don’t fit in with their
grand vision of perfec-
tion . . .”
And now he is here.
Other Ocular were sent with him, and he assumes they are dead by now. For a
time, he fell into the company of a

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Minosaur. Personally he could not stand Minosaurs, but he had to admit this
par tic u lar one fought bravely and ef-
fectively. They had been a good team, until the Minosaur had fallen in a
battle that the Ocular had managed to es-
cape. From hiding, the Ocular had watched the vomitous humans as they had
beheaded the Minosaur and pranced about, waving his horned head like a trophy.
One of them had then plunged a knife into the Minosaur’s chest and pulled out
his mighty heart, holding that up as well in tri-
umph.
Monsters. Monsters, the lot of them.
The Ocular suddenly feels the pain of a spear slamming into him, burying
itself in his shoulder. It is small in com-
parison to him, because the creature who had wielded it was comparatively
smaller as well.
He turns and sees them approaching. They are lightly clad, with scraps of
cloth around their middles, some of them wearing pieces of armor that are no
protection against the wrath of the far larger Ocular. He pulls the spear from
his shoulder, wincing at the minor pain it causes, and then flicks it back at
them. It lands squarely in the chest of one of the unarmored ones, who utters
a shriek and collapses. Remarkable how little it takes to kill one of them.
Two or three more approach from different sides. In the distance, the Ocular
hears water, the pounding of the surf.
The sound gives him minute plea sure. In his old world, there was much water,
and he loved to float in it for hours on end. But he is jolted from his
reverie once more by the harsh reality of the humans with their spears. He is
able to bat several of them away in midair, but one or two more
234
PETER DAVID

thud into him. He lets out a yelp and the humans cheer, which is about what he
would have expected from beasts such as these. He pulls out the spears but,
instead of throwing them, breaks them disdainfully.
They charge him en masse, shouting war cries, and he meets the charge head-
on. They clamber up him, swarm-
ing, and he grabs two of them in one of his huge hands and throws them to the
ground as hard as he can. He hears a satisfying crunch as they strike the
ground, their heads splitting, and what passes for their imbecile brains
spills out upon the ground. He shrugs off the others, scattering them about,
and then backs up to give himself some dis-
tance.
He is on a narrow incline, retreating, as more of them come from everywhere in
response to the shouts of their fellows. The heat of the sun is relentless,
beating down upon him. Does the very sky ally itself with these little bar-
barians?
The Ocular dwells briefly upon the First Wave, even as he continues to
retreat. In the history of this world, they arrived long before these human
creatures existed. Back when their ancestors, all but unrecognizable to modern
hu-
mans, cowered in trees. But time passes very differently in the Elserealms
than it does here. What was eons on this world was not much more than an
eyeblink back in the place of origin of the Ocular and his kind.
Back then, the first of the Banished had it easy. In an orgy of extinction,
they hunted the big, slow, stupid crea-
tures residing on this world into oblivion. Then, bored, hav-
ing conquered their enemy, they reverted to type and hunted each other.
Brilliant move, that. Then again, the eventual climatic changes that followed
their arrival, including a lengthy period of sheer frost, would have wiped
them out anyway.
He almost envies them.

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More of the humans advance on the Ocular now, and still more. How many?
Hundreds? They chatter at him in their annoying language, a brutal cacophony,
and he continues
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
235

to back up. He can barely see, practically blind in daylight as are all of his
kind. If only it were night, this would be a different story. But he
suspects they’re not going to give him that kind of time.
Some inner sense warns him at the last moment, stops him from retreating any
further. The rushing of air, the closer sound of the water, tells him all he
needs to know:
He is at a drop- off. A very high one, judging from the echo.
He cannot retreat any further. Very well. Then he will attack. He will crush
as many of them beneath his feet as he can manage. Who knows? Perhaps they
will break and run when he charges them. Perhaps he may let live to fight
another day.
Then he hears something. It is a faint “whup whup”
sound, as if something is being spun around quickly. He shields his eye from
the sun as best he can, squints so furi-
ously that his eye is tearing up.
He is able to make out a human . . . a young one, it ap-
pears, smaller in size, curly hair that hangs about his shoulders. He is
holding what seems to be a strip of leather in one hand, and he is whirling it
about as quickly as he can. It is building up speed with every spin,
apparently be-
cause there is a stone lodged in one end that is giving it weight. It’s moving
so quickly that the Ocular, already in-
con ve nienced by the sun, cannot make it out at all.
“Give me that,” snarls the Ocular, trying to reach for it.
It is a desperate grab, and the boy moves lightly out of the way, twisting as
he does so, and then unleashing the stone.
It flies across the intervening space and lands squarely in the Ocular’s
forehead, just above the eye. He staggers, uncertain and unaware of just how
much damage has been done him. His first inkling is when he tries to take a
step forward and discovers that his legs are collapsing be-
neath him. He no longer has command over his body. He mutters an exclamation
of surprise, and then becomes aware that some thick liquid is trickling down
his face. He touches it gingerly, reaches up, and feels the rock lodged in his
head. Blood is oozing from around it.
236
PETER DAVID

He killed me. The little bastard, thinks the Ocular in surprise, even as he
backs all the way to the edge. He is un-
caring of that jeopardy now. It is meaningless in compari-
son to his far more pronounced problem. The humans are cheering and shouting,
celebrating the meaningless tri-
umph of some pathetic child who attacked from a safe dis-
tance. Who knows what they’ll build this incident into when they’re through
with the retellings.
And he bellows at them even as he feels his right heel edging onto empty air.
“Fools!” he shouts at them. His voice is explosive, deafening, and they pause
in their howling self- congratulation. “Do you think this is the end of it?
Do you think killing me and my kind will save you?
You know nothing! We are but the Second Wave! Our oh-
so- generous conquerors sent a few of us first, to test the environment! To
see how we fared when it came to sur-

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vival! They did not want our banishment to be a death sentence! And once they
are satisfied that your world can s u p p o r t u s , n u r t u r e u s...
t h e y w ill send the Third Wave!
And we will not be in tens or even hundreds of us then.
That is when the rest of us will be sent through in all our numbers to reside
upon your puny sphere! We will over-
run you, and you will be as nothing to us! We will wipe you out! Those of you
who do survive will be our willing slaves! Your race can enjoy its dominance
of this world for a time longer
—
a few of your millennia at most
—
and then the Third Wave will destroy you! Do you hear me?
Destroy you!”
They hear him, but of course do not understand. To them it is merely roaring
in an incomprehensible tongue. And when he stops, they advance on him, their
spear points at the ready. But he is at the ready as well. He will not go the
way of the Minosaur. He will not have his carcass brutalized, have his head
paraded about as a trophy or his heart torn out. If he is to die, he will do
so on his own terms.
When the humans, the great blurred mass that they are to his vision, draw
closer, he steps back off the cliff. He hears several of them cry out, and is
not surprised. They’re
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
237

about to lose their trophy, and they know it. They also know there’s not a
damned thing they can do about it.
Having delivered the only warning presented to humans about the eventual Third
Wave, he topples backward. He falls in eerie silence, making no outcry,
offering no protest.
As he plummets, his mind races away to the ocean of his home, and he is
floating in it and he is at peace. He is not even aware of it when his body
strikes the jagged rocks, tearing him to shreds. The humans, standing at the
top of the cliff, look down and howl in frustration, denied their prize. Using
the hazardous paths that lead down from the cliff to the shore far below, they
will never be able to get there before the strong currents drag the Ocular’s
carcass out to sea.
Still, the humans at least are able to take solace in their triumph. There are
giants in these days, but the humans have overcome them. They have also, in
various lands, slain dragons, killed vampires, beheaded Gorgons. It has been a
busy time for humans, and a triumph of human re-
sourcefulness and human imagination.
They are the lords of the Earth. They are God’s chosen, placed there in order
to have dominion over all those who crawl and walk upon the world, and burrow
beneath it, and fly over it. Man, they will assure you, is the only crea-
ture with a soul, the only being in existence that is made as a reflection of
God’s own image. They will tell you, with conviction, that the sun moves
around the Earth, and that mankind is the center of the universe. Although in
years to come, they will come to know more of the reality of their own
surroundings, that fundamental egocentricity will never really go away. It
will simply mutate or evolve into other means of expression.
When the Third Wave is eventually unleashed, they will not be ready. That lack
of readiness will cost them their world.
238
PETER DAVID

THE COUNTRY OF FEEND

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Sunara Redeye crouched for a good, long time at the narrow hole that opened
out onto the shore. The surf was rolling in gently, and the moonlight sparkled
playfully upon the waves. Although she was content in Subterror, there was
something to be said for getting out every so often. Still, she couldn’t be
too careful. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled the night air, trying to
detect the slightest scent wafting to-
ward her indicating an ambush.
There was nothing. Nothing at all. Not even the scent of the individual she
was expecting, which annoyed her. She was there; where did he get off, keeping
her waiting? Was she not Sunara Redeye? Was she not Mistress of the Piri?
One did not keep the Mistress waiting. It simply wasn’t done. She would have
harsh words for him when he arrived.
Finally, overcome with temptation, and certain that she was unwatched and
unattended, Sunara eased herself through the hole and landed lightly on the
ground in a crouch. She stayed that way for a time, straining not only with
her nostrils but with her ears as well. No sound, no movement, save that of
the water.
Satisfied that she was alone, Sunara stood upright and raced toward the water.
She moved so lightly that she made no sound upon the sand, although there was
the slightest splash as her feet hit the water. She stopped at about ankle
depth, not desiring to go any further. She knew the dangers that were
incumbent if she undertook such a rash action.
Sunara was as light- boned as any other Piri, and if she went in too deep,
the current would yank her away as easily as it would a leaf. So she contented
herself with splashing the water around with her toes, watching the droplets
soar high and then rejoin the crashing ocean.
She had made certain that the breeze was blowing down

toward her, so that the scent of anyone approaching would be readily
detectable. If the wind had shifted, leaving her in a position where someone
could sneak up on her, she would have hurried back to her place of concealment
before any-
one could get close enough to pose a threat. Fortunately the wind remained
cooperative. So it was that when someone did approach, her sharp olfactory
senses detected him im-
mediately and she knew that it was the individual whom she was expecting. She
knelt in the water, cupping it and splashing it upon her face. There was water
available to the
Piri through underground streams, but that was flat and life-
less compared with what she was currently gallivanting in.
This was water as it was meant to be, free and unfettered.
She couldn’t help but feel the water was a meta phor for the Piri
themselves. There was no reason that they should have to reside in the dank
and darkness of Subterror. It served as their home and their protection, and
her kind would long ago have been wiped out were it not for their ability to
seek refuge below the ground. But even so...
why should other races, such as the Ocular, have the run of the surface, while
she and her people were condemned to hide below?
“You are late,” Sunara Redeye called out as the individ-
ual she was meeting drew closer. She remained with her back to him as she
approached, an unmistakable sign of her confidence. She wanted to convey one
of two messages: Ei-
ther that she was certain she would not attack her, or that she was confident
that if he did attack her, she would be able to dispose of him with facility.
“I expected you some time ago, honored Phemus, and I do not like to be kept
wait-
ing.”
“My apologies, Mistress,” came the voice of Phemus of the Ocular. She turned
to face him then, and was pleased to see that he was ner vous ly glancing

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around. That was the difference between him and her. He was terrified of the
con-
sequences of their being seen together. She was not. “It is not always a
simple matter for me to slip away from court.
Important matters demand my attention.”
240
PETER DAVID

“I am not an important matter?” she asked.
“I did not say that . . .”
She waved it off. “Don’t be stumbling over your tongue trying to speak
niceties to me, Phemus... a l t h o u g h I a d m i t
I find it amusing when you do.”
“As ever, I live for your amusement, Mistress.”
He approached her tentatively and she reached up to cup his chin in her hand.
She was tall for a Piri and he was diminutive for an Ocular, so they were
quite close to the same height. She turned his head right, then left, and she
made a soft humming noise as she did so. “How can they not smell it on you?”
she asked finally.
“It?”
“The Piri blood that courses through your veins,” she said. “It is muted by
your mixed Ocular ancestry, but still, it is there for any who truly care to
take a whiff.”
He took her smaller hand in his much larger one and smiled, his one eye
blinking rapidly. “There are none among the Ocular who share your discerning
senses, Mis-
tress. Oh, our sense of smell is sharp enough... b u t n o t h -
ing compared to yours.”
“And how lucky that is for you, wouldn’t you say?” she asked.
“Indisputably lucky, Mistress.”
“How long?”
“Mistress?”
“How long do you think you would last if they knew your secret?” She drew a
single long fingernail across his cheek, and he gasped slightly as it cut into
his face, leaving a thin bleeding line. “Quiet,” she ordered him, and then she
brought his face down to hers and drew her tongue across it, her tongue
darting eagerly and licking up the fresh blood.
He said nothing as she did so, although she could feel him trembling. She
wasn’t sure whether he was doing so in fear or in enjoyment, although either
way didn’t matter to her.
She released him then and he stood, putting a hand to his face to stop the
bleeding. “Do not concern yourself,” she said casually, strolling several feet
away with her hands
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
241

draped behind her back. “I did not cut deeply and it will doubtless not be
noticed upon your return.”
“Why did you—?”
“Because,” she told him reasonably, “I could. Why else?”
“No other reason that matters.”
She leaned against a tree trunk and licked her lips. “Now tell me: Did you
manage to ‘encourage’ Nagel to do as we desire him to?”
“Yes,” Phemus assured her. “Even now he is on his way to the Mandraques,
seeking an alliance for the purpose of wiping out the Piri.”
Sunara laughed delightedly at that, clapping her hands in a small burst of
joy. “Perfect! Perfect. And they will kill him, of course, leaving the Ocular
leaderless. At which p o i n t y o u s t e p i n a n d... ”

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Her voice trailed off as she noticed that he was not look-
ing particularly jovial about their prospects. “Is there a problem, Phemus?”
“Well . . . one can never know... ”
“One had better know,” Sunara said, her good mood be-
ginning to evaporate. “If there is reason not to know, then it would be best
if I knew that as well.”
“The problem, Mistress,” Phemus told her, pacing the area, “is that you are
assuming...
we are assuming... c e r -
tain behavior on the part of the Mandraques.”
“Assumptions that are perfectly reasonable,” said Sunara, “when one considers
the overall history of the Man-
draques.”
“So it would seem. But . . . what if matters have changed?
One can never be absolutely certain. What if the scenario that I put forward
to Nagel . . . the one that you and I both b e l i e v e c o u l d n e v e r
t r u l y c o m e t o p a s s... d i d , i n f a c t , hap-
pen? What if the Mandraques joined forces with us for the purpose of
exterminating the Piri? Will we not have out-
smarted ourselves? Brought death and destruction need-
lessly raining down upon us?”
“It will not happen,” Sunara assured him. “I know the
Mandraques far too well. They will certainly perceive Nagel
242
PETER DAVID

for the fool that he is. If there is one thing that the Man-
draques do not suffer gladly, it is fools. Mandraques do noth-
ing in half mea sures.”
“So I have heard.”
“They will have no interest,” she continued, “in allying themselves with a
foolish young monarch who seeks al-
liances that he should not. They will destroy him and send his head back to us
on a pike.”
“Or they will seek to conquer us,” Phemus reminded her. “It is not as if
we’re invulnerable. They could take ad-
vantage of the same power vacuum that you anticipate upon Nagel’s demise, and
storm in here. Then where would your plan be?”
“My plan would be defunct,” admitted Sunara, but con-
tinued firmly, “However, that is not going to be the case.
Think about it from the Mandraque point of view. If they were to attack us,
they would wait until the end of night.
That is not for . . . what? Half a sun cycle? By that time, all will be
attended to. You will be installed as new leader of the Ocular. For your first
accomplishment,” and she let her fingers once more run lingeringly down the
side of his face.
He flinched automatically but she did not cut his skin this time. “You will
create an alliance and treaty with the Piri.
The Ocular will no longer live in fear. Instead... t h e y w i l l grow to
understand us. To appreciate us. To offer us love, where before there was only
hatred.” She was speaking in a singsong tone, like a happy child.
“You expect a great deal, Mistress,” said Phemus.
“I merely take the long view, Phemus. When one is Mis-
tress, that is the only view it is possible to take. I must con-
sider the long- term health of my people, and their best possible future.”
Her voice pulsed with enthusiasm. She draped an arm around Phemus’s waist and
spoke in the way a visionary would, describing some vast divine revelation
that had just been unveiled for him. “Just imagine if we could finally,
finally domesticate the Ocular.”

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“You’ve spoken to me of this dream of yours before... ”
“It’s no dream,” she said firmly, drawing him tighter to
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
243

her. He squirmed a bit at the closeness. This pleased her.
“You know as well as I do, Phemus... t h e Ocular are little m o r e t h a
n... oh, what was the old name for those mindless animals? That simply
followed when led and bleated when they were in trouble?”
“Humans?”
“No, the ones on four legs with white, wiry fur.”
“Oh. ‘Sheep.’”
“Yes, exactly. The Ocular are little more than sheep.
They depend on their leader to guide them. That is particu-
larly the case in daylight, when they wander about nearly blind.”
“It’s not as if the Piri are especially useful during the daylight either,
Mistress,” Phemus reminded her.
She shrugged it off. “That is not the point. The Ocular re-
quire someone to tell them what to do. To guide them and shape their destinies
for them. They see us as predators, Phemus. More, they see us as parasites.
But it need not re-
main that way. The Ocular and the Piri should be able to de-
v e l o p a m o r e... s y m b i o t i c r e l a t i onship.”
“Symbiotic?” he said dubiously. “I don’t exactly... h o w d o y o u...? ”
“As it stands now,” she said patiently, as if lecturing a child rather than
one of the most important nobles of the land, “the Ocular see us only as
creatures who suck the lifeblood from them as means of sustaining ourselves.”
“Not an unreasonable way to view you.”
“Perhaps,” Sunara admitted, “but it is not the only way.
We have much that we can give the Ocular in exchange for their being
supporting of our needs. They don’t have to think of themselves as
victimized,” she said, thumping a hand on his chest. “They can be partners
instead.”
“Partners in what?”
“In opening their eyes... m y p a r don, eye... t o a whole new view of
things. To seeing their world and surroundings in a way they hadn’t before.”
She smiled, displaying her perfect fangs. “To see things with the enhanced
senses of the Piri, rather than the muted perceptions of the Ocular.”
244
PETER DAVID

“Make them more like you
?” He laughed again. “Mis-
tress, I know my kind. Both of my kind, the Piri side and the
Ocular side. My own presence and mixed blood notwithstanding—and that was a
freakish combination of events that resulted in my existence, as you well
know—one cannot be made more like the other.”
“You are wrong,” she replied. “In old times, it was not uncommon at all. The
humans were particularly susceptible to us. The longer one of them remained
with us, the more they became like us... t o such a degree that, save for
their much shorter life span, one of them could become indistin-
guishable from us.”
“That was the humans,” sniffed Phemus disdainfully.
“Hardly a fair comparison. It’s foolishness to compare the
Ocular to the Morts. Besides, much time has passed since those days. All
beings change, and the Piri are no exception.
The Piri no longer have the patience or interest to turn a vict—excuse me, a
‘provider’—over to the Piri way of life.”

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“Oh, how certain you are of yourself,” Sunara Redeye sneered. “How certain you
are of the beings who compose part of your heritage. You would be speaking a
far different opinion if you were able to see your king’s beloved niece
these days.”
It took a moment for the full import of what she was say-
ing to register. “Merrih?” he finally said. “You refer to Mer-
rih?”
“The very same.”
“She is not dead?”
“Not at all!” said Sunara, as if the notion was ridiculous.
“She is very much alive.”
“But I thought she would be long dead by now.” A
thought struck him and he began to sweat ner vous ly. “Does s h e... k n o
w a b o u t m e ? A b o u t m y connection with the
Piri?”
“I don’t recall it coming up in conversation, no. But if you wish,” she
offered, sounding as if she were truly con-
cerned about his feelings, “I can mention it to her the very next opportunity
I have... ”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
245

“
No!
I mean,” and he steadied his voice, “I mean, no, that wouldn’t be necessary.
Or prudent. What if she escapes—?”
“She is not going to escape. She has neither the need nor the desire.”
Phemus studied her a long moment with his unblinking, unwavering eye. “Are you
serious?” Phemus demanded.
“Are you saying that even if she could escape, she’d have no interest in doing
so?”
“I’m saying that she is a remarkable test case for my the-
ory of Piri- Ocular symbiosis. Just imagine how it will be, Phemus, when
Nagel does not return and then the Ocular—
at their most dispirited—are graced with the return of the king’s niece. A
young, pop u lar Ocular who will speak highly of us and our way of life. Who
will make the Ocular understand that cooperating with us, joining with us,
will be mutually beneficial to all. She will be living proof that our way of
life and that of the Ocular are not mutually exclu-
sive.
“She will be a sensual being, oh yes,” and Sunara made a soft, rumbling sound
in her chest that any Mort of the olden days would have recognized as a
purring noise. “That is an-
other aspect that the Ocular do not truly recognize or under-
stand: their potential for physical plea sure and erotic discovery. Those are
being plumbed and released within
Merrih even as we speak, and she is much the happier for it.
She enjoys congress with the Piri, and is coming to think of them—not as
predatory animals or parasites—but as com-
panions on her journey to true ecstasy. Very soon . . . she will be drinking
blood herself.”
“I don’t believe it!”
“Believe it,” she told the stunned Phemus. “She becomes more like us with each
passing day. Her skin is beginning to develop our sallow tint. When others
feed upon her, she watches them closely and I see her unconsciously licking
her lips, wondering what the taste of blood would be like.
She craves our lifestyle. Whether it be out of morbid curios-
ity or long- suppressed desire, I could not tell you. But crave it she
does, and I see no reason to deny the child.”

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246
PETER DAVID

“No, no, of course not,” Phemus said, recovering from his astonishment. “I
just . . . I find it so difficult to believe.”
“That,” she said, patting him gently on the face, “is the tragedy. I am aware
you could not live among the Ocular—
and thus would be no good to us as a spy—if they knew you for the mixed
breed that you are. They would run you out of their settlement. We would not
gain from that, and so your tongue is wisely held. But now you are offended—”
“Not offended.”
“Concerned, then,” she continued, “about my acquisi-
tion. About Merrih. About my assessment of the Ocular and your repressed
society. Do not scold the messenger when you know the message to be true.
Yours is a race that is blind to so much. Tragic that you are blind even to
your own shortcomings.”
“We simply have different priorities from yours, Mis-
tress,” replied Phemus, working to keep his wounded sensi-
bilities under tight rein. “We concern ourselves with matters of the mind. You
obsess over pleasures of the flesh.
We are ce re bral, you are tactile. We are—”
“Filled with nonsense, and we are not,” said Mistress
Sunara Redeye, thumping Phemus on the chest with a scolding finger. “Whether
you admit to it or not, that’s the truth. If there is one thing that I have
learned, however, it is that within the heart of every sour pragmatist or
high- flown intellectual, there is a sensualist positively screaming to be
unleashed. We will loosen that leash upon the Ocular, and those who feared us,
despised us... t h e y w ill thank us.
They will bow to us, and do what ever we wish. What ever you wish as well.”
She looked him up and down, raising an eyebrow speculatively. “Certainly that
must have occurred to you. You do have your own aspirations of power, do you
not?”
He did not answer.
“After all,” she continued, “what other motive must you have had for disposing
of Nagel’s father? You knew that the son would be easier to control . . .”
“I had no choice.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
247

“You always have a—”
“
I had no choice, ” he repeated sharply. “He had just learned of . . . he knew
what my mother had done... k n e w of her . . . of . . .”
“He had learned who and what your father was.”
Phemus let out a slow breath. “Yes. You know that.”
“Because your poor, dying mother, seeking forgiveness before she went before
her gods, foolishly confessed her sin to her ruler, certain that he would
understand and forgive.”
She laughed. “Trust a female with one eye to be short-
sighted in—”
To Sunara’s utter shock, Phemus was upon her. Her rank, her position, her
status of having a person that was sacro-
sanct suddenly were of no relevance as Phemus’s hand shot forward as if of
its own accord. He grabbed her by the neck and collarbone and slammed her back
up against a tree with such ferocity that the entire thing shook, dislodging a
stray branch or two. She gasped, not just from pain, but from the pure
incredulity of being treated in such a manner.
“Have you lost your mind?” she hissed, her eyes wide. She grabbed at the

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single arm holding her with both her hands but wasn’t able to dislodge it in
the slightest. Her eyes widened as she saw his cocked fist hovering mere feet
away, and she wisely ceased all movement. His face was impas-
sive; he could have been cooking breakfast for all the emo-
tion he was displaying. Phemus’s voice was so low that she had to strain to
hear it.
“Do not,” he said barely above a whisper, “believe that, because I show due
respect for your station, I am afraid of you. I respect you, Mistress. I am .
. . intrigued by you. I
display the same perverseness of spirit, I suppose, that drew my mother to my
sire. But I do not fear you as your follow-
ers do. I do not quaver when you pass, I do not worship you, and—unlike the
Piri—I can very easily imagine a world without you.” Slowly his face moved in
toward hers until it seemed to Sunara that the entirety of her world was one
huge, unblinking eye focused upon her. “Do we understand
248
PETER DAVID

each other, Mistress? Have I made my position clear? I
sense that I have not. Just so you truly comprehend: Criti-
cize me, display contempt for my king, dismiss the entirety of my race as
sexually repressed buffoons. None of that means anything to me. However . . .”
“Your mother is out of bounds.”
“Precisely,” replied Phemus.
Despite the fact that he could have snapped her head off with a twitch of his
fingers, Sunara nevertheless laughed.
“How heartening in this day and age to see such loyalty from a son,” she said.
Phemus growled a moment as if trying to decide just what he was going to do
with her. Finally he released her, shaking her loose from his hand the way a
dog would divest itself of fleas. They stood there for a moment, bathed in the
moonlight, as if truly seeing each other for the first time.
Sunara’s hand idly rubbed the base of her throat. “Your . . .
d e v o t i o n... i s a d mirable,” she said at last.
“And your understanding is legendary,” Phemus said with a slightly mocking
bow. “You truly have a hold on
Merrih’s spirit?”
“Even stronger a hold than you had on me moments ago.
Frankly, I am not entirely certain that, if and when we give her her freedom,
she will wish to leave us.”
“We shall have to see. You will keep me apprised of de-
velopments?”
“Of course.”
He nodded in approval, turned, and started to walk away.
She called after him and he stopped and glanced back at her over his shoulder.
“You do realize,” Sunara Redeye informed him, “that at some point in the
future, I will make certain that you die for the way in which you treated me
just now.”
“I realize,” Phemus assured her, “that you will most defi-
nitely try.”
“I suppose we’ll have to see how that turns out then.”
“I suppose we will.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
249

She moved noiselessly backward, and was swallowed up into the darkness of the
hole that led down into Subterror.
Phemus remained, staring into it as if somehow the future was hidden within.
When nothing presented itself, he sighed and headed back to the castle.

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It was odd, though. As he had watched Sunara depart into the darkness, he
could have sworn, just for a moment, that he saw another form within as well.
Someone else moving about, hidden deep within. But it had only been
fleeting, and then it had been gone. Sunara’s senses were as sharp as any-
one’s, so if she hadn’t reacted, then it had probably been his imagination.
But since Phemus knew all too well that he was singu-
larly lacking in imagination, it was a consideration that did not sit well
with him. He decided, however, to give it no more thought, if for no other
reason than that thinking too much tended to make his eye hurt.
THE FIVE CLANS BORDERLANDS
Jepp knew of the Trulls, but not in much detail, so Karsen took the time to
fill her in. She listened raptly as he gave as much background of the race as
he knew, interrupting here and there with a reasonably well- thought-
out question. While he did that, Zerena Foux and the others quickly and effi-
ciently broke down the campsite. Several times Karsen of-
fered to pitch in, but Zerena kept assuring him that they had everything under
control. Meanwhile Jepp seemed happy not only for the explanations, but for
the company, and Karsen was only too pleased to oblige her.
“So they remain neutral while selling weaponry to all sides?” Jepp said,
tilting her head a bit so that she looked like a small animal listening
carefully to the sounds of the wind. “Is taking all sides the same as being
neutral?”
250
PETER DAVID

“That’s just the point,” Karsen told her. “They’re not tak-
ing all sides. They’re taking no sides.”
“If they took no sides, wouldn’t they refuse to make their weaponry
available to anybody at all?”
Karsen paused at that, not entirely sure how to respond.
“From what you’re telling me,” continued Jepp, “they are bartering quite
deftly, since their underground home pro-
vides no practical supply of, say, food. And that barter comes from trading
with all sides that have farmlands and such, or can bring them slaughtered
animals to feast upon.
They take all sides and profit from all, rather than truly tak-
ing no sides and charting their own, much more difficult, course in the
world.”
“I doubt they think of it in that way,” he told her.
Jepp hesitated for such a long time that Karsen noticed it.
“ I s t h e r e... s o m e t h i n g y o u w a n t t o say to that?”
“What? Oh... n o , ” J epp quickly assured him. “No, not at—”
“I think there was.”
“I am telling you, Karsen, there was—”
He took a step toward her, scrutinizing her as if he could look right into the
depths of her thoughts. “What goes through your mind, Jepp?”
“My mind? Nothing. There is nothing on my mind. Ever.
I have no mind.”
“At last,” Zerena said, lugging a large crate under one arm that was filled
with supplies, “something that we can agree on.” She mounted it on the back of
their vehicle, the rest of the Bottom Feeders already having climbed in and
taken their customary seats. “Come on, Karsen. Let’s go.
Time to move out.”
“All right,” Karsen said guardedly, but he kept studying
Jepp as they squeezed into the jumpcar. As before, there was some
rearrangement and shuffling around required be-
fore everyone was inside. Zerena clambered into the dri-
ver’s seat and fired up the jumpcar. At first it started up with no problem,
but then it went dead.

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“Now what the hell !”
—
Zerena cried out, slamming her
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
251

fist on the dash. “Mingo! I thought you had this thing up and running!”
“I did. I thought I did.”
She tried it again and this time the engine caught with more authority. She
put the jumpcar in reverse, backed up, then rolled it forward and began
driving it as quickly as it would go.
The ride was silent for a time as Karsen tilted his head back, looking up at
the stars. Naturally he had no recollec-
tion of the Elserealm from which the Twelve Races had originally sprung. He
had been born here, on the Damned
World. Zerena claimed that she had, in her youth, an el der -
ly relative who claimed to have been in the Third Wave. His recollections
would alternate between wistful recollections of the Elserealm from which they
had been banished, and chortling, colorful stories about the amazing depth and
va-
riety of salvage that had gone on during the time when the
Third Wave had overrun the Damned World and mowed through the determined but,
ultimately, outmatched hu-
mans.
“The best were the ones who would try to negotiate,” he had said. “They
were always the most entertaining, because the Mandraques, more often than
not, although sometimes it was the Ocular would pretend that, yes, they were
interested in coming to a reasonable settlement. They would invite the
Morts to treaty meetings, and sometimes they’d just kill them outright, or
other times they’d actually negotiate a treaty and watch the Morts run around
and proclaim peace in their time while the races would move their forces into
position and, sooner or later, do exactly what they’d intended to do the en-
tire time. The Morts were always surprised. No matter how many times they
were lied to, they were dumbfounded that they were then lied to yet again.
It would have been funny if it were not so pathetic.”
Karsen kept looking at Jepp and trying to see in her some hint of the
determination, resourcefulness, and ingenuity that had enabled her kind to
dominate their world for so long. He was forced to come to the conclusion
that, before
252
PETER DAVID

the Third Wave, what ever other races presented the Morts possible
competition for the very top of the food chain must not have been especially
formidable. The Morts must have acquired their position of supremacy purely
through de-
fault.
And suddenly, still gazing up at the stars, Karsen came to an abrupt
realization. “Mother,” he spoke up, and his voice startled Mingo and Rafe, who
had been dozing. Jepp had been leaning against his arm, sleeping lightly, and
she sat up and blinked in confusion. “Mother, which direction are we heading?”
“West,” she said without hesitation.
“I thought so. Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are we heading west?”
“Why wouldn’t we be?”
Now the others were fully awake, and although Jepp and
Rafe were confused (it was difficult to tell what Gant’s state of mind was

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at any given moment, since he was little more than a puddle at the far end of
the jumpcar), Mingo was not.
“The nearest Trull hub point is due south of our previous lo-
cation,” Mingo said, rubbing the last of the sleep from his eyes. “We’re
heading away from where we should be go-
i n g... ”
“
Should be going?” Zerena Foux was openly contemptu-
ous of the concept. “I disagree. We’re going in the precisely r i g h t d i
r e c t i o n t h a t w e s h o u l d b e g o i n g i n... w h i c h i
s a s f a r away from any of this insanity as possible.”
“Mother!”
“You promised Nagel,” Mingo said with a hint of re-
proach in his voice.
“I promised someone who was threatening to eat us if we didn’t accede to his
demands!” shot back Zerena. “You don’t seriously, for one moment, think that
such a promise is binding under that circumstance, do you?”
“Stop the jumpcar, Mother,” Karsen said firmly.
“The hell I will . . .”
“Stop the car!”
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253

“The hell I will!”
Zerena repeated, her voice thunderous.
The jumpcar was hardly the quietest of vehicles, but Zer-
ena’s bellowing response rose above the rickety engine.
“Now, you listen to me, boy! I am the head of this clan, and
I will make the decisions for us!”
“And the decision you made before was that we would do as Nagel asked... ”
“Forced us to, Karsen. Don’t forget that.”
“I haven’t—”
“I think you have. I know for my part that I would have said or promised
anything if it meant buying us enough time to escape.”
“But . . . what about—” Jepp began.
Zerena cut her off immediately. “You have nothing to say in this matter.”
“It’s her life on the line same as ours, Mother. I’d think that would give her
plenty to say.”
“Well, you’d think wrong.”
Karsen ignored her, instead turning to Jepp and saying, “What about what?”
“It’s nothing import—”
“Jepp!”
Jepp flinched back at the impatience and anger in his voice, and Karsen knew
right then that she expected he was going to hit her. He moaned to himself,
since he had no de-
sire to have her think he was emulating the behavior of her previous “own
er,” the Greatness. But before he could soothe her or convince her that she
was perfectly safe, Jepp told him, “Well, it’s just that . . . from what you
said, no one
‘forced’ Nagel to spare your life, Zerena. In that time past, I
mean. He could have killed you then, but chose not to. So what you now
perceive as ‘forcing’ you to do that which you have no desire to, is likely
seen by Nagel as just insisting that you live up to the courtesy that he
extended you by let-
ting you live.”
“I didn’t ask for him to extend that courtesy,” Zerena fired back, but even
Karsen could detect the hint of uncer-
tainty in her tone. “Besides, what it comes down to is what
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PETER DAVID

he wants versus what I want. Right now what I want to do is get as far away
from the Ocular and their concerns with the
Trulls as possible.”
“But he said he would hunt us down... ”
She waved dismissively. “Let him try,” she said. “And even if he did, I’ll
take my chances of keeping so far away from the Ocular that they’ll never find
us, as opposed to braving the underground lair of the Trulls, anytime.”
“But what of our honor . . . ?” Karsen asked.
“What of it? Who cares what the damned king of the damned Ocular thinks or
says about us? Besides, have you forgotten? We’re Bottom Feeders. We’re
seen as the lowest of the low anyway.”
“So you’re saying that we should not hesitate to live down to the expectations
that others have of us?” asked Mingo, making no attempt to disguise his
contempt for the notion.
“I’m saying it’s not our fight!”
“What if it were?”
“It’s not. And if it were, now that I think on it, we’d still be running
away, because that’s what we do. We’re not war-
riors, you stupid Mort. We are merely the ones who pick up the droppings of
those stupid enough to be warriors. I’ve seen enough rivers of blood and piles
of bodies in my life-
time to know the futility of it, and I have no desire to see anything that’s
inside the bodies of myself or my clan on the outside. What ever lunatic
notion Nagel has come up with in order to eliminate the Piri, it’s not
something that need concern us!”
“Why not?” asked Jepp.
Zerena turned so violently in her seat that she almost sent the jumpcar
clattering off course.
“Why not?”
she practi-
cally screeched, causing Mingo to cover his ears. “Have you heard nothing I’ve
said? The enmity between those two races is their own! Of what possible profit
would it be for us to meddle, especially considering that such meddling will
likely get us all killed?”
“I . . . don’t suppose there’s any profit in it at all,” Jepp admitted.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
255

“There! There you go,” and Zerena looked triumphantly, not at Jepp, but at
Karsen. “Even your little Mort admits that—”
“But he did spare your life,” Jepp reminded her.
Zerena’s exultation turned to annoyance. “That,” she said icily, “was his
choice. Just as it is my choice now to get us out of harm’s way. We are Bottom
Feeders, Jepp. First of all, that makes us survivors. Now that I think on it,
we are second and third of all survivors as well. Nothing super-
sedes that. Nothing. And if you find that philosophy so re-
pugnant, then I cordially invite you to step out right now and
I will most gladly leave you behind.”
“You don’t have to threaten the girl, Zerena,” Mingo said.
She looked at him, incredulous. “You too now? What’s gotten into you? You
cannot possibly be hypocrite enough to criticize me for running away. You
wouldn’t be with us if you yourself hadn’t fled a situation you found
intolerable.”
“It wasn’t just the situation, it was the choice, and may I
extend my heartiest appreciation for your pointlessly bring-
ing up yet another painful memory,” he replied.

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“I’m sorry,” Jepp said.
Mingo twisted around in his seat, staring at her. “What are you apologizing
for?”
“For causing dissent and arguing,” she told him. “I
w a s... I w a s j u s t t r y i n g t o u n d e r s t a n d . ”
“What were you trying to understand?” asked Karsen, resting a hand on her
arm. He was impressed, not for the first time, by the sheer warmth of her, the
sleekness of her skin.
“ I j u s t... I m e a n... w h y w e r e n ’ t y o u m o v ed?”
Her question was clearly not to Karsen but to Zerena.
“Moved?” Zerena seemed bewildered, not having the faintest idea what Jepp was
referring to. The jumpcar hit a bump and jostled all within, and Zerena
gripped the con-
trols tighter to keep the vehicle on course.
“By what the king told us. Nagel, the king... ”
“I know which king you’re referring to.”
“Well . . . his whole situation. About his niece, about his
256
PETER DAVID

people, living in fear and all that. It doesn’t seem any way to live, and he
wants to find some way to change it. I just . . .
don’t think that’s such a bad idea at all. Do you?”
“No, it’s not a bad idea,” Zerena replied, “but it’s an irrel-
evant idea. Irrelevant to us, I mean. If this is something
Nagel wants to do, let him try and sort it out. Let him launch an assault on
the Trulls rather than using us as his henchmen. There’s no point in our
trying to help him when we don’t directly benefit ourselves.”
“But maybe that’s the point!” said Jepp.
“The point of what?”
Zerena’s exasperation appeared to be reaching critical mass.
To Karsen’s surprise, Jepp didn’t back down or flinch.
“The point of . . . of everything! The point of living! What’s the use of
living in a world if you don’t do everything you can to make it a better world
just . . . just because you’re there! And the benefit to you isn’t something
tangible or something you can trade or eat or . . . or copulate with. The
benefit is knowing that you’ve done everything you can to try and make the
world better for others.”
The jumpcar skidded to a halt. The engine died.
Zerena turned and stared fully at Jepp. Mingo leaned over, looking worriedly
at the controls. “Did it go out of commission ag—”
“I shut it down.”
“You—?”
“I didn’t want my focus split.” Zerena licked her lips, ap-
p a r e n t l y t r y i n g t o f o r m h e r t h o u g h t s . “ Y o
u... a r e i nsane.”
“I am?”
“Mother—”
“You’re insane.” There was neither anger nor heat in her voice. She actually
sounded far more reasonable than she usually did. “I mean it. Seriously.
You’re insane. But you’re also revelatory.”
“I am?” Jepp said again.
“Yes. Because now I will never again wonder how it is that your species was
unable to hold its own against our invading force. It’s because you and your
kind are actually
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capable of framing thoughts like the one that you just put forward.”
“It’s called ‘altruism,’ Zerena,” Mingo said. “What, you never heard of it?”
“Oh, I’ve heard of it. I just didn’t think anyone still suck-
ing air preached it, because anyone embracing it was just too stupid to live.
You have no idea, girl, of the needs of the real world.”
“I’m beginning to,” Jepp assured her, “but what’s wrong with wanting to change
parts of it?”
“Because it is what it is! You can’t change it. You just have to live within
it.”
“I don’t think even you believe that,” said Jepp.
Zerena laughed roughly. “Child, you’ve only just now started stringing your
own thoughts together. Don’t dare to try and tell me what my thoughts are.”
“But what if it were Karsen!”
She shook her head in confusion, not able to keep up with the jump in
conversation. “What if what were
Karsen?”
“Can we get out at least and stretch our legs?” asked
Mingo. “It’s silly to—”
“Stay where you are.”
“All right,” Mingo said.
“What,” Zerena repeated, “if what were Karsen?”
“What if it were Karsen who had been dragged away by the Piri?” asked Jepp.
“If he were the one hauled away, kicking and screaming, and you’d only been
able to stand there and watch it happen. Would you want to do something about
it? Do anything about it? Or would you just be saying, Oh well, that’s the way
the world is, and move on?”
“That’s different,” Zerena said, and she looked at Karsen and then away, which
surprised him.
“How is it different?”
“Because then it’s a matter of our survival, and it’s not . . .”
“But it wouldn’t be!” Jepp said, far more challengingly than Karsen would
have thought possible. “He’d be gone.
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PETER DAVID

Nothing you could do would save him, presumably. And re-
venge doesn’t have anything to do with making a profit ei-
ther.”
“At least revenge as a motive makes more sense than... ”
She looked to Mingo questioningly. “What was it ...? ”
“Altruism.”
“Altruism,” she repeated.
Jepp stared unblinkingly at Zerena, and then she leaned forward and said, “You
lie, Zerena Foux. If anything hap-
pened to Karsen, you would want to do everything in your power to make sure
that no mother should ever have to be made to feel the way you did because
your son was lost to you. If you knew of a way to safeguard all sons
everywhere from the Piri, then you would do what ever it took. You know it.
And I know it. So why pretend otherwise?”
Karsen scrutinized his mother. She looked as if her head were going to
explode. “You don’t know me,” she said fi-
nally.
“I’m simply saying that—”
“You. Don’t. Know. Me. If you pretend to do so again, I
swear to all the gods there are, I will kill you. I will rip out your living
heart and I will feast on it. Do you understand me?”
A range of conflicting emotions played across Jepp’s face, but finally she
simply said, “Yes.”
Then Rafe Kestor spoke up. Not a word had passed his lips during the entire

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confrontation. He had simply stared off into space in such a way that it
seemed he was totally re-
moved from everything that was transpiring. Finally, how-
ever, he spoke, and it was hard to tell whether he was doing so in direct
response to something that had been said, or if it was just a random comment
from his addled mind.
“It’s a good thing,” he said softly, “to want to leave the world better than
it was when you found it.”
The aged Mandraque then lapsed back into silence, leav-
ing all of them staring at him.
Karsen’s mind was racing. He had rarely stood up to his mother on any sort of
major topic. It was simply understood
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
259

that she was the clan’s leader, that her word was final, and that was all. The
words she was speaking now, about the simple sensibility of watching out for
one’s own best interests...
how, really, could that be called into dispute?
Jepp was an insulated creature, having been kept in the ser vice of the
Mandraque called the Greatness and isolated from the harsh realities of the
world. There was no point in a selfless quest to benefit the Ocular when it
would not help the immediate situation of the Bottom Feeders... e v e n
though it was true that Nagel had spared Zerena’s life. Then again, the threat
he had saved it from was his original inten-
tion to kill her, so how much credit should someone be given for saving
someone from he himself? Yes. As fond as he was becoming of Jepp, in this
instance she was in the wrong and Zerena Foux was in the right. Simple as
that.
And then Jepp said, “Let me out.” She began to ease her way past Karsen. “I
wish to get out here.”
“Why? Where are you going?” asked Karsen. “Do you have need to relieve
yourself—?”
“I’m going to do as we promised. Zerena Foux, kindly open the door . . .”
“Oh, this is far too perfect,” said Zerena, and she trig-
gered the “open” mechanism. The large clear side door slid wide and Zerena
hopped out of the jumpcar, sliding nimbly past Karsen.
The moment her feet were on the ground, Karsen was right after her. “What
are you talking about?” he demanded as she began to walk, with Karsen pacing
her. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To find the Trulls and their Orb of the Trinity device,”
Jepp said reasonably. “So that I can bring it to the Ocular and maybe make the
world a better place.”
“Mother’s right, you are insane!” Karsen assured her, as he stepped around so
that he was directly in her path. She tried to walk around him and his hoofed
feet moved quickly so that she couldn’t proceed. “You don’t even know where
you’re going!”
“I’ll ask someone.”
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PETER DAVID

“
Look at you!” he said desperately. “You’re dressed in flimsy garments! You
have no capacity for self- defense. You have no weapons. Anyone whose aid
or succor you would seek would simply take you prisoner and use you for what-
ever they wished!”
“Surely that’s my problem, though.”
“Can’t argue with her when she’s right,” Zerena called.

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He whirled and pointed accusingly. “Quiet, Mother! This is all your fault!”
“Your pet human decides to grow a spine. How is that my fault?”
Jepp took several steps in the general direction of the ve-
hicle. “What did you expect me to do, milady? Ever since
I’ve been part of your company, you’ve endlessly derided me for my lack of . .
. of spine. Did you think I would not take your words seriously? Consider the
truth of your com-
m e n t s ? I w a n t t o h a v e... ”
“Have what?” asked Karsen.
She fixed him with her limpid eyes. “Worth, Karsen. All creatures have to have
some kind of worth. For as long as I
was with the Greatness, I believed it, but could never act upon it. And I was
content not to, because it was so much easier. But I don’t have that excuse
anymore, do I?” She paused. “Do I?” she repeated, and she sounded quite sad
when she said it.
“No,” he sighed. “No, I suppose you don’t.”
“Maybe I’m just trying to make up for lost time. Or maybe I’m just tired of
the excuses. But I like the notion of trying to do something in a cause that’s
greater than my-
self, which isn’t all that difficult because just about any-
thing in the whole Damned World is greater than myself. I
should know, because my whole life I’ve been told how worthless I am, and
how worthless my people are.” She paused once more, and actually laughed.
“Odd, isn’t it. A
lifetime of being putting down, of living with degradation.
Yet such a relatively brief time with you, being made to feel that maybe, just
maybe, I
am worth something, and suddenly I’m ready to . . . to... ”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
261

“To throw your life away.”
“It’s a small enough thing. I’ve certainly had enough be-
ings telling me that
.”
“But I don’t want you to die.”
“I should hope not.”
“Yet you will.”
“Then she dies!” Zerena called impatiently from the jumpcar. “It’s her
decision. You should be proud enough of her, Karsen. Take credit for her
growth.”
“Her growth is similar to a weed’s,” Karsen retorted, “and she will be cut
down with about as much thought.”
“That’s her problem.”
“Your mother’s right. What matter that I die in ser vice of the promise she
herself made?”
That prompted Zerena to vault from the jumpcar. “Ohhh no you don’t,” she said,
waving a finger angrily as she came around the front of the vehicle. “Don’t
you lay it upon me.
I’m not asking you to do my job.”
“No, but the job needs doing, and you won’t, so... ” J e p p shrugged as if
that was all there was to say.
“My job is keeping this clan alive,” Zerena said harshly, “and that’s all that
matters.”
“Life should be about more than that.”
“So say you!”
“Yes,” Jepp replied. “So say I. And never before have I
had people listening to what I said. It’s exhilarating and
I like it. I like it, Karsen, and I don’t want to let it go. I

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f e e l... a l i v e... f o r t h e fi r s t time in my life. If I die
feeling t h i s w a y... ”
“It’s not just that you’ll die,” Karsen assured her. “It’s that you’ll find
yourself in a predicament where you’ll wish you were dead. Mother,” and he
turned to Zerena. “This is your doing. So undo it. Stop her.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” Zerena snorted. “If she wants to go, you’re well rid
of her. You wish to depart, girl? No one here is stopping you.”
“The hell no one is,” said Karsen, as he gripped her by the arm.
262
PETER DAVID

She made no move to pull away, but instead just looked at him sadly. “So all
your grand words about how I have my freedom now are just words? When it comes
down to it . . .
I’m just serving a different master, aren’t I?”
He stared at her, then let out an angry snarl and yanked his hand away. “Fine!
Go! But I’m not coming with you.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“You’ll die!”
“Maybe.” She brushed her hair out of her face and then put her hands on her
hips. “Could someone at least point me in the right direction.”
“You’ll get lost. All right! Fine!”
“Fine?”
“Yes, fine.” Karsen went around to the back of the jump-
car and opened it.
“Karsen, what are you doing?” demanded Zerena.
He pulled out the war hammer from their cache and slid it into the straps upon
his back. “I’m going with her.”
“The hell you are!”
All the life was draining from Zer-
ena’s face. “You’re not going anywhere!”
“Am I a slave? Are you my master now?”
“More than that! I’m your mother, and head of your clan, and I forbid it!”
“I’m your son, and a member of your clan, and your clan is obliged to fulfill
an oath to the Ocular, and I’m not seeing a good deal of choice here.” He
walked over to Jepp and shook his head as he did so. “The things you get me i
n t o... ”
“I’m not asking for your help in—”
“Oh, do shut up,” he said irritably. “Come. It’s this way.”
“Karsen!” Zerena fairly howled. She covered the dis-
tance between them with one vault of her powerful leg mus-
cles and landed squarely in his way. “Get back in the jumpcar. Right now.”
“Or what?” asked Karsen. “Are you going to overpower me, Mother? Pick me up
and throw me in?”
“If I have to. Do you doubt I can?”
“Actually, no,” he said, looking her up and down. “But I
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
263

doubt you can stay awake for the rest of your life. Sooner or later you’ll
sleep, which means that sooner or later, I’ll be going after Jepp to guide her
on her way. On our way.”
“Then I’ll tie you up—”
“Oh, honestly, Zerena!” Mingo called out, having climbed out of the jumpcar.
Rafe Kestor was right behind him, watching the proceedings in a detached
manner that made it difficult to ascertain whether he was truly following it
all. “Is that to be your son’s fate? That he be treated as if he were a
prisoner of his own clan?”

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“I’ll do what’s necessary to watch out for his best inter-
ests.”
“I’m going with Jepp, Mother.”
She stood there, gesticulating, trying to form words when none would come.
Finally she took a step back, breathed in deeply and then let it out slowly in
an obvious display of trying to compose herself. “What,” she finally managed
to say, “has she done to you?”
“Nothing... ”
“No,” Zerena shook her head furiously. “You cannot say
‘nothing’ when there’s obviously been something. I’ve spent a lifetime
training you to watch out for yourself, and this is what I get in return?”
“I
am watching out for myself, Mother.”
“Going on a suicide mission to satisfy the desires of the
One- Eyed King! How is that watching out for yourself?!”
“Because it is I, myself, who am deciding to do so, rather than you deciding
for me.”
“Is something interesting going on?” It was Rafe
Kestor. His tongue flicked out as if tasting the air, and he looked around
expectantly at the participants in the little drama.
“My son is in open revolt against me, Rafe Kestor,” Zer-
ena said.
Rafe Kestor considered that. “Good,” he said at last.
“That’s as it should be. Better open than behind your back.
You should know that the knife is coming into your chest rather than between
your shoulder blades.”
264
PETER DAVID

“Thank you, Rafe Kestor,” said an annoyed Zerena Foux.
“That was very useful.”
“I but live to serve,” Rafe Kestor said graciously, bowing so that his snout
almost touched the ground.
Mingo approached Karsen, moving with a slow swagger.
“You know, you’ll get yourself lost. You always had a lousy sense of
direction. I’m just going to have to guide you there myself.”
“Would you?” asked Karsen, looking relieved. “Truth to tell, I was going to
guide her and hope for the best. With you along, we actually have a shot at
not getting lost . . .”
“You cannot be serious,” said Zerena. “Mingo, you can-
not be serious. You cannot be planning to join them in this misadventure.”
“You,” Mingo told her, “should not have brought up things in my past that you
once promised you’d never bring up.”
“I was angry.”
“So am I.”
“You should never do things just because you’re angry.”
“And yet, here we are,” said Mingo. He looked over to the
Mandraque. “Rafe Kestor, will you be coming along?”
“Absolutely!”
declared Rafe, and he yanked his sword out and whipped it through the air.
Everyone near him stepped back, and anyone who wasn’t near him stepped back as
well, just in case. “Life is far too short not to do things that could make it
shorter! Where are we off to, then?”
There was a “splat” sound, and Gant poured out of the jumpcar. He oozed over
toward the others, and Zerena gaped at him with unfettered incredulity.
“You’re going to die,” Zerena said. “You’re all going to die.”
“True,” agreed Mingo. “It’s only the ‘when’ that’s at is-
sue.”
“All right!”

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bellowed Zerena. She turned her back on them, stalked toward the jumpcar and
climbed in without even bothering to close the doors behind her. “Go off on
your suicide mission! See if I care!”
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265

She gunned the engine, which started up obediently. She slammed the jumpcar
into drive and it practically leaped off the ground in its urgency to depart.
The others stood there and watched as the jumpcar sped away.
“Now what?” asked Mingo.
“Now,” said Karsen, “we see if she cares.”
The jumpcar made it approximately five hundred yards before grinding to a
halt. It remained in place for a moment, and then backed up. Gears grinding in
protest, the jumpcar hurtled backward, swerving from side to side as it came
un-
til it finally skidded to a halt, the vehicle’s treads unable to grip the dry
ground firmly.
The doors slid open and Zerena scowled fiercely at them.
“You’re all idiots. I am the leader of idiots.”
“ A n d...? ” p r o m p t e d K a r sen.
“What sort of leader would I be if I were not the biggest idiot of all,”
snapped Zerena.
Without another word, the rest of the Bottom Feeders clambered into the
jumpcar. Zerena didn’t look at any of them. Instead her full attention was
focused on Jepp. Jepp did not back down, returning the gaze levelly.
“This is all your fault,” she said.
“Yes.”
“This calamity will be on your head.”
“Most calamities in this planet’s history have been on the heads of humans,”
Jepp replied. “It’s probably why we have hard heads.”
“Don’t get clever with me.”
“Yes, milady.”
And with that, Zerena whipped the jumpcar around and set the vehicle hurtling
in the direction of the closest Trull hub.
266
PETER DAVID

THE CITY- STATE OF VENETS
i.
The eve ning that Orin Arn Oran addressed the Markene, telling them of their
role in the planned assault upon the
Travelers, Tulisia Sydonis was pacing impatiently within her private chambers.
She had been expecting a par tic u lar someone, and had been extremely
brusque with her hus-
band, Ruark, telling him that she had no interest at all in seeing him that
eve ning. Naturally her buffoonish mate had smiled and nodded vacuously. He
was too great a fool even to be insulted by her rebuffs.
There was movement at her door and a tentative rapping.
“Yes, yes, come in!” she called. The door swung open and the shift in her
expression, from impatient to welcoming, was instantaneous. “My dear Lady
Atlanna,” she cooed, gliding across the floor, her hands extended daintily.
“Lady Tulisia,” said Atlanna, the wife of Orin Arn Oran, Warlord of Venets.
She went to one knee, touching Tulisia’s extended knuckles to her forehead in
solemn greeting.
“Up, please my dear, up,” Tulisia urged her, helping At-
lanna to her feet. “Come, sit with me. Are you hungry?
Shall I have something brought up?”
“Not remotely necessary, Lady.”

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“Something to drink, then. I insist. I’ve already had it put out and it would
be positively criminal to waste it,” she con-
tinued when Atlanna tried to protest. “The Morts may have been inept in
defending their world, but they knew what they were about in the production
of their recreational bev-
erages.”
She waved Atlanna over toward a long couch, saw to it that she was comfortably
seated, then sat herself at the far end. There was a low table in front of it,
with two glasses

and an open bottle of dark wine. Tulisia filled each glass with practiced
expertise, took the nearest, and gestured for
Atlanna to take the other. They sipped the wine, and a broad smile crossed
Atlanna’s lips. “You are most right, Lady. The
Morts did have their uses, and this is most definitely one of them.”
“Drink your fill. I have plenty.” As Atlanna proceeded to drain her glass,
Tulisia crossed her legs at the knees and leaned forward in an attitude that
spoke of intimacy, of se-
crets to be shared. “Did you speak to him?”
“My husband? Yes.”
“ A n d...? ”
Atlanna let the suspense build just for a few moments.
Tulisia knew perfectly well that was what Atlanna was do-
ing, but didn’t allow herself to become annoyed by such petty manipulation.
Let Atlanna have her amusements.
“Even as we speak,” Atlanna finally said, “he is address-
ing the Markene down by the Pier, or at least will be shortly as he makes
certain they gather.”
“He will speak to them of the Travelers? Of the great mission?”
“He absolutely will, yes.”
Tulisia clapped her hands in delight. “That is excellent news, Atlanna. Most
excellent news. Was he hesitant over it?”
“Oh, extremely so, Lady,” sighed Atlanna, shaking her head in a way that
showed her endless forbearance for her mate. “He conjured all manner of
reasons as to why it was inadvisable. I daresay much of it was less than
flattering in-
sofar as you are concerned, Lady.”
“I do not take the actions I do in order to garner flattery,”
Tulisia assured her. “I do it for the good of the Sirene. For the good of the
Merk and, yes, even the Markene, although
I doubt they’ve the wit to realize or even notice.” She drummed her fingers on
her knee for a moment, studying At-
lanna. “How,” she asked with a sly smile, “did you manage to overcome his
reluctance?”
“Oh, I spun him some pretty considerations of my own,”
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said Atlanna with clear amusement. “I put the fear of you in him.”
“I can indeed be most terrifying,” said Tulisia, barely able to suppress her
smile. “Why, the very mention of my name is enough to make warlords tremble.”
“So it would seem,” Atlanna said. “In this instance, I told him that if he did
not cooperate, the security of his wife and children could not be vouchsafed.”
Laughing, Tulisia took Atlanna’s hand in her own. “And he believed it? Truly?”
“I can be most convincing, Lady,” Atlanna assured her.
“Come to me, then,” said Tulisia, released Atlanna’s hand and spreading wide
her arms. “Come to me and let me em-
brace you as trusted friend.”

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Atlanna did so. The two women hugged each other, Tulisia patting Atlanna on
the back. “What you have done for the
Markene,” she whispered to Atlanna, “shall be recorded in the annals of our
triumph. When we have defeated the Trav-
e l e r s... when we stride his world from sea to sea, dominat-
ing it as is our right, songs will be sung about your name.”
“About my name, perhaps,” said Atlanna, “but not about me, certainly.”
Tulisia released her, sitting upright, and gave her a scold-
ing, reproachful look. “That you could think such a thing!”
she protested. “Why not you?”
“For I am merely the vessel of your lady’s will. If you have a fine wine, do
you praise the liquid... o r t h e cup that holds it?”
“Fair enough,” laughed Tulisia. She glanced around once more, then, as had
become her habit whenever she dis-
cussed matters of state. “You are certain,” she asked softly, “that your
husband does not suspect?”
“Suspect?”
“That we are sisters in all ways but blood, you and I. That
I asked you to—”
“Oh, no,” and Atlanna shook her head firmly. “No, not at all. He believes only
that I fear you.”
“But you do not.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
269

“Certainly not, Lady.” Atlanna chuckled, the idea clearly absurd. “Why would I
fear you?”
“Because,” Tulisia said, “an individual such as Orin Arn
Oran would not take kindly toward believing that he had been manipulated by
females... b e i t t h e f e m a l e who rules or the female who shares
his body and life. If he feels that anything he says to you is going to be
relayed to me, he will not confide in you. For that matter, if he believes
that wifely advice is actually words whispered by me into your ear in order to
be relayed to him, he will certainly not desire to hear anything you have to
say. In that event,” and she calmly swirled the wine in her glass, “you would
lose all fu-
ture use to me.”
Atlanna’seyesnarrowed.“What . . . areyousaying,Lady?”
“I’m saying that, in such an instance, your own status would be reduced to
that of ‘liability.’ I have shared confi-
dences with you, Atlanna, that I am not anxious to have re-
layed. I’ve done this because you are an intelligent and perceptive female,
and you doubtless would have been able to see through any mendacity on my
part. You would not have trusted me, and gaining your trust was, and is,
essen-
tial.”
“I’m afraid I’m still not following what you are—”
That was the moment Atlanna gasped. She clutched at her stomach, as the
pleasant burning sensation of the wine became far less than pleasant. She
looked at the empty wineglass in her hand, and it slipped from her grasp and
clattered to the floor. Trembling, she stared at Tulisia un-
comprehendingly.
“The reason I like you, Atlanna,” Tulisia continued, as if not noticing
Atlanna’s suddenly desperate state, “is because we two are very similar. We
have ambition. We know how to maneuver others into doing things on our behalf.
We de-
sire power and will not hesitate to do what ever is necessary to acquire it.
The problem is that, when dealing with some-
one who is very similar to you, there are oftentimes prob-

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lems along the way. It’s one of the odd truths that people
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PETER DAVID

who are too much alike can wind up destroying each other.
They see in each other . . . oh, I don’t know... t h e w o r s t that they
themselves have to offer, and it can be too much for them to bear.”
Atlanna tried to speak, but the pain in her stomach be-
came overwhelming and she doubled over, groaning.
“So here is the truth of it,” and Tulisia leaned forward so that her eyes
were on level with Atlanna, even though she was bending over and clutching her
gut. “My concern is that, should the plan fail . . . should the Travelers
withstand an attack and the Overseer comes seeking retribution...
that you will tell all that you know in regard to my involve-
ment. I do not believe that your husband would do such a thing, for he is far
too noble. You, however, are a schemer, like me, and schemers can be quick to
dispatch someone in their place if they feel the need. By the same token, if
mat-
ters should proceed according to the way I am anticipating they will . . .
well, power can be a very attractive lure. And I
can easily see you doing what ever it took to snatch it away from me.”
“No,” Atlanna managed to get out, shaking her head des-
perately. “No, I . . .” and then she groaned loudly once more, in so much pain
that she didn’t know what to do with it all. “I . . . won’t! I swear!”
“You might . . .”
“No! No!”
By that point she was shaking her head so vi-
olently that it looked ready to fall off her neck. “I won’t! I
won’t . . . challenge you! Please, Lady, I have children... a husband... p l
ease don’t . . .”
Tulisia appeared lost in thought, as if unaware that At-
lanna was even still sitting there. Atlanna tried to stand, to get to the
door, although Tulisia hadn’t the slightest clue where she could reasonably
have gotten to. Ultimately it didn’t matter, because the pain in Atlanna’s gut
was so over-
whelming that she collapsed, lying on the floor and gasping like a landed
fish. “If only... ” T u l i s i a s i ghed.
“Lady, please !”
—
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271

“ I f o n l y I k n e w f o r c e r t a i n t h a t I c o u l d t r u
s t y o u... ”
“You can! You can!
I swear—!”
Tulisia glanced at her over her shoulder, one perfect eye-
brow slightly arched. “You swear? On what?”
“On my life! On my children’s lives, my husband’s...
anything!”
Slowly she knelt next to the agonized Atlanna. Like a concerned mother, she
reached over and brushed several strands of seaweed hair from Atlanna’s face.
“What if,” she said softly, “I asked you for the lives of one of your children
in your place? Would you sacrifice one of them in order for you to live?”
Atlanna began to tremble, her arms locked around her stomach. “My... c h i l
d r e n...? ”
“If I gave you that choice, yes. If I told you that you could live in exchange
for one of your own children dying...

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would you do it?”
“ T u l i s i a , p u h - p l e a s e... ”
“Would you?” Her voice was gentle, prodding.
“Don’t ask me such... such a—”
“I simply wish to know. Would—”
“Yes!”
The word was ripped from her throat, and Atlanna began to sob, hot tears
rolling down her face, and the sobs became soul- wrenching howls of despair
as she kept say-
ing, “Yes! Yes yes yes, anything, gods, please, I don’t want to die
—
”
“Oh, I’m afraid you are going to die, my dear Atlanna . . .”
“Gods, no !”
—
“Well, yes,” and Tulisia laughed as if it were the greatest joke in the
world. “I mean, none of us are immortal, now, are we? Although I’ll admit
there is some debate about that inso-
far as the Overseer is concerned. But I’m afraid that, sooner or later, death
must come to us all.”
“I don’t want to die today! Like this! I ”
—
“Atlanna!” Tulisia sounded astonished that Atlanna would even broach the
subject. “Who said anything about your dy-
ing today? I know I never did.” Her eyes were wide and inno-
cent, her hand fluttering to her breast. “Are you not feeling
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PETER DAVID

w e l l ? O h... y o u k n o w what it is?” and she looked at the bottle
of wine accusingly. “Some people—a very small minority—don’t react well to
this par tic u lar beverage. Gives them monumental distress. But it
passes.”
“W-What?” Gradually Atlanna was becoming aware that the pain was subsiding. It
had already eased enough that she was able to sit up. “What are . . . it
passes?”
“Oh yes. I see you were having a negative reaction to it.
No more for you, young lady,” she said in a scolding tone, and capped the
bottle. “We shall make certain that you stick to milder concoctions in the
future.”
“I . . .” The pain was now almost gone, and Atlanna was getting to her feet.
Her face looked worn and haggard, her hair hanging limply around it. “I
thought . . . I was dying... ”
“Did you?” Tulisia “hmmph”ed to herself. “How terrible that must have been for
you—”
And now anger began to boil within Atlanna. She stabbed a trembling finger at
Tulisia. “It wasn’t the wine! You...
put something into mine! You poisoned me! Gave me some-
thing to make me think I was dying—”
“I?” Her voice went up slightly. “My dear Atlanna, I am hurt. Yes, I am. That
you could accuse me of such a thing, without the slightest bit of evidence.
You test our friendship, my dear, yes you do.”
“Our . . .
friendship.
” Atlanna choked back a derisive laugh. Her hands were flexing, making it
look for all the world as if she wanted to put a fist through Tulisia’s face.
“Don’t speak pretty words to me, Lady. I know you for what y o u a r e... ”
“Yes. I imagine you do. Know that I see you as well, At-
lanna,” replied Tulisia evenly. “A woman who would sacri-

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fice the spawn of her own loins if it meant saving her life.
We see each other plainly now. We each see what the other is capable of . . .
and we see where each other’s priorities are. If I surpass your expectations
of me while you live down to mine of you, well . . . at least matters are
clear. And that can only be beneficial for everyone’s long- term health and
prosperity... don’t you think?”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
273

Atlanna’s breath was ragged in her chest. She leaned on the edge of a chair
for support, and then she managed to nod. “As you say... L ady Tulisia.”
“Good.” Tulisia stepped forward and embraced Atlanna, the oldest of friends.
Atlanna went stiff, afraid to move, as if she were surrounded by poisonous
fish and the slightest gesture might cause them to sting en masse.
“Go home to your offspring and mate,” Tulisia whispered in her ear. “Trea
sure them as a good mother should. And promise me you’ll never forget what
transpired here this day.”
“To my dying day, I shall remember, Lady.”
“Good. Let us both hope that that day will not come for a long, long time.”
She released Atlanna, and then stood and watched as At-
lanna made her way out of the room on unsteady legs. Then she unstoppered the
wine and drained the remaining con-
tents, licking the last vestiges from her lips when she was done.
ii.
{Gorkon loses all track of how long he floats in the dark-
ness of the depths. He could have been down there for five tides or five
hundred tides, and it would feel exactly the same. He is down so far that even
Markene eyes—capable of vision in far darker circumstances than a Merk could
ever hope to duplicate—can discern nothing save a haze of ebony.}
{For a time he ponders what it would be like just to re-
main there. To turn the depths into a watery grave; that way he would never
have to face any of his kind again. Never look at them with the sort of
hopeless disappointment that pervaded any of his association with them.}
{But the longer he dwells on such a possibility, the more he rejects it. After
all, has he not already dallied with the
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PETER DAVID

prospect of self- destruction? Has he not beached himself and waited for
the inevitable, only to discover other possi-
bilities in his conversations with Ruark Sydonis?}
{Yes, the two most obvious options for the course of his life are perpetual
humiliation or death at his own hands, but is there not something else?}
{Ruark’s face comes to him unbidden, staring at him with gentle
disappointment.
Do you really have to ask that?
Ru-
ark inquires.
After the time we’ve spent together, the discus-
sions we’ve had... h a v e y o u n o t y e t l e arned to look beyond
yourself? Must you really seek out only the simplest, quickest answers, rather
than pursue the possibilities that are the hardest to achieve, but ultimately
the most satisfying?
}
{But it is difficult . . . so difficult . . . }
{
That is how you know it is worth pursuing.
}

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{He does not know how long he continues to float there after that, pondering
those words. Nor does he make any conscious effort to head for the surface.
All he knows is that he is moving. His body has made the decision before his
conscious mind has done so. He heads toward the surface, picking up speed as
the light from above begins to filter through, and soon... }
Gorkon broke the surface and glanced around, unsure of where he was. For all
he knew, he was going to come up at the Great Pier, still surrounded by his
fellow Markene, with
Orin Arn Oran staring quizzically at him and perhaps even beginning to form
suspicions about him. But he was not near the Pier. It took him a few moments
to get his bearings, and as he did so, he sensed that time had passed. He
sensed something else as well, and the instinct alone was enough to send him
swimming toward the rendezvous point where he’d met up with Ruark Sydonis all
those times.
He cut through the water like a spear, leaving a clean wake behind him, and it
was not long before he reached the
Resting Point, the location where he had first tried to take his life and had
wound up encountering the wayward ruler of the Sirene.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
275

Sure enough, just as he had anticipated—although he could not for the life
of him explain how he had been able to do so—there sat Ruark Sydonis. As he
had on all his previ-
ous encounters, Ruark was perched in a one- man boat and gave a wan smile
upon spotting the approaching young
Markene.
“I had a feeling you would be here,” said Ruark.
“As I did about you.”
Gorkon’s voice was choked with emotion, and Ruark no-
ticed it immediately. “What ails you, young friend?” he asked in his most
solicitous voice.
Gorkon was about to respond... a n d t hen he stopped.
Instead he studied Ruark for a long moment. Aware of the intense scrutiny,
Ruark said, “What is bothering you, Gorkon?”
“You know, don’t you.” Gorkon was surprised to hear himself say it, but as
soon as he did, he knew he was right.
Ruark continued to be confused, or at least to be feigning confusion. “I’m
certain I don’t know what you mean... ”
“You said you were just guessing that there was some-
thing that was going to be happening with the Travelers. But you weren’t
guessing. You knew.”
“My dear Gorkon,” Ruark began, “you are giving me far too much credit for—”
Gorkon abruptly disappeared. He sank beneath the wa-
ter without a word, leaving a puzzled Ruark Sydonis look-
ing around, scrutinizing the water for some sign of the
Markene. “Gorkon?” he called. “Gorkon... i s s o m e t h i n g wr—?”
The surge of water caught him completely off guard. Ru-
ark flinched back as Gorkon suddenly launched into the air, straight up,
having swum down to some great depth and then blasted his way to the surface.
The water undulated wildly around him. It was all that Ruark could do to hang
on. Then Gorkon twisted in midair, plummeted straight down, and slammed into
the water as hard as he could. The result was a most impressive wave that
completely swamped
Ruark’s small ship, capsizing him and sending the monarch
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PETER DAVID

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of the Sirene tumbling out of his boat and headfirst into the water.
He was not, of course, in any danger. A Merk could breathe in the water as
easily as a Markene, although they couldn’t begin to approach the depths that
a Markene could reach. Nevertheless Ruark came up sputtering, more in in-
dignation than anything else. Wiping the water from his face, he saw Gorkon
floating not three feet away, looking deadly serious and indeed quite angry.
“What the hell was the meaning of that!”
he demanded.
Gorkon paused a moment before responding. “I might ask the same of you,
milord. What is the meaning of the games you’ve been playing with me?”
“My dear Gorkon, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about—”
Gorkon swam toward him, the gaze of his dark eyes never shifting. “Do not tell
me that, for we both know it to be false. You are like the sea itself, Ruark
Sydonis. What we see on the surface cannot begin to hint at what there is in
the depths. You enjoy playing the pleasant, detached fool so that none will
take you seriously. It matters little, or even not at all, to me. What does
matter is the fate of my people, and I will not have that made the object of
creative games-
manship.”
“How interesting,” said Ruark. He swum backward eas-
ily and drew himself up onto the Resting Point. He pro-
ceeded to wring out his garments. “It was not all that long ago that you cared
so little for your people that if you sim-
ply died, never to see them again, it would have meant noth-
ing to you. I suppose things change.”
“I suppose they do,” Gorkon agreed. “So tell me now, Ruark Sydonis, and be
honest with me... p r esuming that your meetings with me have some true
meaning to you, and are not just mere diversions in what ever games are
unfold-
ing in your head.”
“Yes, they have meaning to me,” Ruark said. The water splattered out of his
clothing in large droplets as he twisted the cloth. “Ask your questions then,
what ever they
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
277

may be. And be grateful that I am generous enough to ig-
nore the ignominy of being dunked in the water by one such as you.”
The comment was provocative, but Gorkon let it pass. In-
stead he circled the Resting Point warily as he said, “Orin
Arn Oran met with my people. Do you know what he told them to do?”
“He told them,” and Ruark sounded weary as he spoke, “to attack the Travelers,
would be my guess.”
“Yes. He said they were plotting against us.”
“I’m sure he did.”
“Are they?”
Ruark shrugged. “Not to my knowledge.”
“Is it possible they are and you don’t know about it?”
“Possible? Anything is possible, my young friend.
Likely?” He shook his head. “No. Most unlikely.”
“Then why would Orin Arn Oran send my people against the Travelers?”
“Why do you think?”
Getting angry, Gorkon said, “Stop playing games with me—”
But he was startled when Ruark tossed aside his avuncu-
lar persona and bellowed at him with a stridency that served to underscore
just who it was who was truly the ruler of the
Sirene. “That is what life is, you foolish little Markene! It is a game with
players on all sides, each engaging in his own little maneuvers, and each
trying to accomplish one simple goal: to be the only one left standing at the

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end of it, before he is himself swept off the board by the great games-
men who look down upon us all and laugh at our foibles. If y o u d o n o t
s t a r t t h i n k i n g... i f y o u d o n o t b e g i n t o p l a y
t h e game yourself, rather than wait for me to explain all the r u l e s...
y o u w ill be removed from play sooner than you could possibly anticipate.
It will be done far more rudely and with far more finality than just being
tossed in the wa-
ter. Now answer me,” he continued before Gorkon could re-
cover, “why do you think that Orin Arn Oran wants you to attack the
Travelers?”
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Gorkon’s mind raced, trying to put answers together with what little he knew
of the Sirene warlord. “Well . . . he would want us to attack because he saw
them as an enemy . . .
except . . . except you said you did not know of any threat they posed. And
they have not attacked us, not ever in our h i s t o r y... ”
“So what can you discern from that?” asked Ruark. He sounded closer to his
usual tone, but there was an undercur-
rent of iron to it.
“That . . . they are not a threat.” He waited for Ruark to say something, but
Ruark simply watched him. With a flip of his thick feet, he began to circle
the Resting Point. “If they are not a threat, then Orin Arn Oran wants us to
attack them . . . for no reason. Which is not consistent with what I
know of Orin Arn Oran.”
“Which would imply... ” p r o m p t e d R u a r k .
“That attacking the Travelers is not Orin Arn Oran’s idea.
He is merely acting as an agent for someone else.”
Ruark was about to ask “And who...? ” b u t G o r k o n a n -
ticipated the question.
“Your spouse, the Lady Tulisia Sydonis,” said Gorkon.
“Only she ranks above Orin Arn Oran in the hierarchy of
Venets. Only on her behalf would he order the Markene to do such a thing.” It
was all he could do to prevent the words from tumbling one over the other as
his thoughts started to race faster than he could verbalize them. “And if we
con-
tinue to believe that the Travelers pose no threat . . . if we take that as a
given, as an unchanging fact . . . then the Lady
Tulisia wants the Travelers attacked for one of two reasons:
Either she wants to provoke something, or prove some-
thing.”
“Does provoking something make sense?” asked Ruark.
“No, of course not. Why try to start a fight with the be-
ings who are the right hand of the Overseer himself? Which would mean that
she’s trying to prove something instead.”
“What would that be?”
Ruark could tell from the look in Gorkon’s eyes that he had it even before he
spoke. “She wants to prove, or at least
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
279

find out if, the Travelers are vulnerable to attack. I mean, supposedly they
are invincible, but no one in memory has ever tried to challenge that. But she
wants to attempt it be-
cause, if Travelers can be challenged and defeated, then anything is
possible... u p t o a n d i n c l u d i n g a c o m p l e t e shift in
power in the Damned World. But she has no desire,”

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he continued unprompted, “to commit any of the Merk to the campaign because,
if it fails, she wants to be able to deny that she had anything to do with it.
When questioned, she would merely claim that the Markene did it all on their
own. No need to worry about the reason: She’ll fabricate it.
She’ll claim we did it in a Klaa- addled haze. It doesn’t mat-
ter. All that matters is, Tulisia Sydonis would take the credit for any
triumph, while my people would take the blame for a failure.”
“It sounds fiendish.”
“It’s diabolical!”
“Would it work?”
Slowly, Gorkon nodded. “It very well might. And there’s nothing I can do.”
“Nothing?”
Gorkon studied Ruark’s passive expression. “Are you suggesting there’s
something I can do?”
“What do you think?”
Gorkon moaned very loudly then and slid beneath the water. Ruark thought
briefly that was the last he was going to see of the Markene, but then Gorkon
bobbed to the sur-
face. He was, however, still moaning. “I was correct the first time. It is
hopeless.”
“Is it now?”
“Of course it is. As long as the Klaa holds the Markene in thrall, I’m
helpless to do anything about it. I mean, I could a l w a y s... ” T hen he
shook his head. “No.”
“No what? Say what you are thinking.”
Snorting derisively in a preemptive dismissal of what was going through his
mind, Gorkon said, “It’s impossible.”
“Gorkon
—
!”
“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it. The only way to liberate the
280
PETER DAVID

Markene from their addiction is to cut them off from the source of that
addiction permanently.”
“As the gate cuts them off, you mean.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of destroying the
Klaa supply itself, and I don’t see how that’s possible. It grows and regrows
with determined stubbornness. Even if I
ripped it all off the reef, there would be more of it in no time. The Merk
have been far too efficient in cultivating it into indestructibility.”
“So it would seem,” said Ruark.
“Not ‘so it would seem.’ So it is,” Gorkon insisted.
“Well, if you are so certain, than who am I to disagree with you.” He gestured
toward his boat, which was now floating upright but out of reach some feet
away. “If you w o u l d b e s o k i n d... ”
But Gorkon wasn’t quick to return the boat to him. In-
stead he eyed him suspiciously. “Wait. You’re thinking of something.”
“Am I?”
“Yes. You’re far too skilled at this ‘game’ to allow me to get ahead of you.
I’ve only just now caught up with you, haven’t I? You’ve a notion of . . . of
something, I’m not even sure what.”
“Possibly,” said Ruark in a noncommittal manner. “How-
ever, I’ve no clue as to whether you’d be interested.”
“Truthfully, neither do I.” Gorkon dwelt on the immen-
sity of that which he was contemplating. “I mean... l e t ’ s say that I was
able to manage it, with or without your help.
Let’s say that I was able to separate the Markene from their precious Klaa.

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I’m not even sure they could handle such a thing. It might . . . I don’t know.
It might destroy them. I
can’t even begin to guess the effect it would have. It could tear them apart,
or they might tear one another apart.
There’s no way of knowing for sure.”
“No, there isn’t,” replied Ruark. “But what do you know for sure?”
“That as long as Klaa exists, they will always be slaves.”
“That’s true enough. And although it’s not my people and
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281

not my problem, I have to note that it certainly doesn’t sound like much of
a life to me. You, however, might feel differently about it.”
“No, I really don’t,” Gorkon admitted.
He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, then put his hand against Ruark’s
boat and pushed it gently. It slid gracefully across the water and bumped up
against the edge of the
Resting Point. Ruark stared down at it but made no effort to board it. Instead
he just shifted his gaze to Gorkon and waited for him to say exactly what
Gorkon next said.
“You know the way to get rid of Klaa?” he asked.
“I know way. That actually might be too generous; I
a know a possibility.
Whether it’s one worth pursuing, how-
ever, is up to you. We are, after all, discussing the future of your race.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that.”
“You may want to consider it further.”
“I may want to, but I don’t.”
“Still, there might be other options to—”
“Milord, with all respect, talk to me or I’ll tear your boat apart and you can
swim home.”
Despite the gravity of the situation and the magnitude of what they were
discussing, Ruark chuckled at that. Then, his face growing serious, he said,
“All right. Listen to me, then, Gorkon, for we have much to discuss. And since
the
Travelers might pass through at any time, it is hard to know just how much
time there is to discuss it.”
282
PETER DAVID

THE UNDERGROUND
i.
Several cycles of the sun earlier . . .
Eutok was going to make his mother happy. As a gift cel-
ebrating the anniversary of her ascension to the throne, he was going to bring
her the head of a Piri.
Of all the races of the Damned World, the Piri was the only one that the
Trulls had no congress with. They took no action against them, for the Trull
code of neutrality was in-
violable. But they did nothing to aid them, or provide them any sort of tech.
The Trulls treated the Piri as the rest of the
Twelve Races did: like the animals that they were. If the Piri had not been
able to hide underground, in warrens and caves and tunnels that defied
infiltration by other races, then they would have been wiped out long ago. On
one oc-
casion the Mandraques had obtained burrowing tech from the Trulls and had used
it to go in after the Piri. That, how-
ever, had been a disaster, for the Mandraques simply dug their way into the

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midst of Piri mazes but, once there, were set upon and devoured by the Piri.
Those few who had es-
caped the slaughter had described a terrifying and relent-
less foe, moving so fast in the darkness that none of their victims ever saw
their doom descending upon them. They were there, they were gone, and so
were the Mandraques.
This disastrous encounter had grown, in the retelling, el-
evated to epic proportions, and become a severe disincen-
tive for anyone to make another assault upon the Piri. And that sale of
equipment had been made before Eurella be-
came queen. After that, she had forbidden burrowing equip-
ment to be provided to anyone else, believing it should remain the sole
province of the Trulls. “We do not sell that which makes us unique,” Eurella
had decreed.

But Eutok knew her antipathy for the Piri remained, and so he resolved to
obtain the head of one for a trophy.
Eutok was Chancellor of the Trulls. He had vast experi-
ence with all manner of weaponry, and had no fear at all when it came to
danger. So he outfitted himself with a for-
midable sword, and several daggers sticking out of various parts of his belt,
and set out in a Trull car, or Truller, for the farthest reaches of the
normally traveled Trull territory.
There were tunnels that extended beyond that area, however, and once the
Truller had taken him as far as the path per-
mitted, he traveled on foot. He made his way through the passages, his bare
feet large and leathery, capable of grip-
ping uneven surfaces with his toes and padding noiselessly through the
darkness so that none could hear him. In this way he hoped to be able to get
the jump on one of them.
He knew that this could end badly. They could, after all, get the jump on him.
Bear him down to the floor, tear him to pieces. Yet he was not at all
concerned about that possibil-
ity. He had much confidence in himself as Chancellor, as warrior, as a chosen
of the gods to be the instrument of their will upon the planet. An instrument
of the will of the gods did not die so ingloriously.
He was able to discern the point at which he’d passed be-
yond the area where Trulls wandered. His broad, flat nos-
trils could no longer detect any scent whatsoever of his fellow Trulls. But
the spoor of the Piri was not especially strong either. Eutok was in a sort of
no man’s land, where neither Trull nor Piri set foot often enough to make any
im-
pression.
It wasn’t surprising that the Piri kept their distance from the Trulls. One
would have thought that the Piri would have targeted them since they were
the only other subterranean race, but quite the opposite was true. The Piri
wanted noth-
ing to do with the Trulls specifically because they had no ad-
vantage over them. There was nowhere the Piri could hide that the Trulls could
not follow. Whereas other races, such as the Ocular, concerned themselves with
the Piri attacking in the dead of night and then scuttling away into their
hidey-
284
PETER DAVID

holes, the Trulls could follow them wherever they went, hunt them down as they
saw fit. It was the Piri’s good fortune that the Trulls believed in
neutrality, else the survival of the

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Piri race would have been questionable in the face of a true campaign of
genocide by the Trulls.
Still, there was no reason that Eutok couldn’t kill at least one if not more
of them, so that he could parade their heads before his mother in order to
curry her favor.
Although even as he continued to make his way cau-
tiously through the caves, marking his way as he went so he could easily find
his way back, he was bleakly aware that his endeavor to please his mother was
very likely doomed. He was not the beloved son. Ulurac was. This was
particularly galling to Eutok, considering that he felt he had done very
little, if anything, to bring disgrace to his mother or the family name,
whereas Ulurac’s uncon-
trolled behavior
—
which had led to a tragedy that rocked the Trull community
—
was nevertheless countenanced. He could not comprehend it, and inwardly he
railed against the unfairness of it all.
It was at that moment, as he dwelt on how supremely un-
just it was that Ulurac continued to be the maternal fa-
vorite, that he heard splashing in the distance. And more, he heard a gentle
singing.
He hugged the wall as he made his way through, crouch-
ing so low that he nearly bent himself double. His senses were extended to the
maximum and, although he knew there was no one near him, nevertheless some
part of him waited for a gang of Piri to drop down upon him and drag him to a
terrible death. His hand remained firmly on this sword hilt, ready for
anything.
The slow but steady sound of moving water told him there was some sort of
underground spring ahead of him. Not only that, but he could detect a change
in the temperature around him. It was getting warm. Perhaps it was some sort
of hot spring.
A n d t h e v o i c e... t h a t w a s t h e m o s t confusing of all.
It could not be a Piri, certainly, for although he had not yet
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
285

seen the person singing, he could tell from her voice alone that she was most
beautiful and sweet, not some animal like the Piri. A Trull maiden, perhaps,
having slipped away from the Hub to obtain some time for herself? Eutok
supposed it was possible, but didn’t seem very likely.
As the tunnel widened ahead of him, he saw a ledge that would give him a
vantage point over the source of the water and the possessor of that lovely
singing voice. He had been on his hands and knees, but now flattened to his
belly. Obvi-
ously he could no longer have one hand resting on his weapon, so he pulled it
from its scabbard, taking care to keep it slightly elevated so the metal would
not scrape on the rock and give away his position.
Eutok edged his way forward, ever so slowly, not wanting to do anything that
could conceivably reveal his presence.
The closer he got, the more his curiosity swelled about the unseen singer. He
got all the way to the edge of the drop- off and pulled his head forward so
he could better discern what was transpiring.
What he saw staggered him.
It was indeed a Piri. A naked, female Piri. She was crouch-
ing in water that was only up to her knees, and splashing about in a carefree
manner. Steam was rising from the water, and the song she was singing was an
aimless ode to some long- dead Piri figure of heroic lore. This alone was
surpris-

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ing enough for Eutok, for he hadn’t thought that the Piri had any sort of lore
at all. They were just . . . animals. They ex-
isted, they survived, they hunted and they killed, and that was more or less
it. Wasn’t it?
The ledge he was perched upon was a good ten feet above the female Piri. He
watched her, riveted. Dissimilar from the squat, stumpy bodies of Trull
maidens even the loveli-
—
est of them
—
this female was tall and slender and curved in a way that Eutok hadn’t thought
the female form capable of.
He found it irresistibly attractive, and involuntarily he won-
dered what it would be like to take such a female, to wanton her and make her
his own...
It was with great effort that he shook such notions from
286
PETER DAVID

his mind. It was disturbing that his thoughts should even wander in such a
direction. Every so often one would hear hushed rumors about someone who had
had sexual con-
gress with a Piri. Such individuals were sick. Everyone knew it. No normal
individual could possibly want to have any sort of physical involvement with a
Piri. It was only slightly better than having sex with a corpse, and there
were some who might have claimed that having sex with a dead
Trull was more acceptable than with a live Piri.
But still . . . was she not . . . attractive, this one? She moved with such
grace, as if a true artist had designed her and loosed her upon the world. He
couldn’t take his eyes from her. He watched her greedily, hungrily. She gave
off some sort of marvelous aroma, and it triggered sense mem-
ories for him. Rarely had he been up to the surface, but one of his most vivid
recollections was the scent of flowers, which he had encountered when he was
very young. He didn’t know the names or species of them, but he had stood in a
field of them and the heady aroma had been nigh unto intoxicating. He had
wanted to run among them, to sprawl in them, gather them up and dump them upon
his head. But his mother had caught up with him, grabbed him firmly by the
wrist, and, squinting angrily against the day-
light, dragged him down and away into the Hub and forbid-
den him from venturing to the surface and taking such foolish risks again.
He had ignored part of her advice, gleefully indulging in foolish risks any
number of times, but he had remained away and withdrawn from the surface. He
had forgotten the scent of flowers, forgotten what he had given up, but at
this moment it all came roaring back to him.
He must have gasped or let out a sudden breath in his recollection, for the
naked female Piri froze. He didn’t move. Slowly she stood and then, without
hesitation, turned and looked full in his direction. Her clothing, what there
was of it, was lying on a nearby shore, but she made no move toward it. Her
chin was tilted in a proud manner, and her eyes were deep and red as blood,
and challenging.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
287

“Would you care for a closer look?” she asked. She did not seem afraid or
threatened. She sounded amused.
At first he didn’t budge, but then he realized the foolish-
ness of it. Still, this was a Piri, and an enemy, and a thing of the night. He
stood abruptly, gripped his sword, and let out a bellow designed to freeze her

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where she was, to fill her with terror and awe. As he did this, he vaulted
from the ledge where he’d been hiding and landed heavily a short distance from
her. He crouched in the water, the warm liq-
uid burbling around his large feet, his gaze fixed upon her and his sword
steady in his hand. Eutok tried to keep staring at her face, but he was not
especially successful. Instead he looked at her body once more, and there was
that smell of flowers again. It was so overwhelming that, because of the
combination of the scent and the warmth of the springs around him, he almost
toppled over. He caught himself at the last moment and snarled at her, but it
was halfhearted.
Nor did it help matters when her only response to his dra-
matic entrance was a lighthearted laugh.
“Stop laughing!” he warned her, waving his sword t h r e a t e n i n g l y...
o r a t l e a s t i n a manner that he imagined was threatening.
She didn’t appear bothered by it. Instead she cocked her head and asked,
“You’re a Trull, aren’t you? I’ve never seen one of your kind, but I’ve heard
stories and descriptions.”
“ Y o u... t e l l e a c h o t h e r s t o r i e s ? ” h e demanded.
“What an odd question,” she said, regarding him as if he were deranged. “Of
course we do. Why wouldn’t we?”
“Well, because... because you’re animals,” he told her, although he felt
foolish even as he said it.
“Are we?”
“Yes!”
“Of course,” she said. “Thinking of us as animals makes it that much easier to
try and exterminate us. Tell me, Trull,”
and she turned slowly in the water, her arms extended to ei-
ther side. “Have you ever felt the need to stare at an animal bathing? Has
watching that action ever given you plea sure before?”
288
PETER DAVID

“Never before,” he sighed, and abruptly tried to regain his mental footing.
“Not . . . that I derived plea sure from watching you here and now. No. No
plea sure at all. I . . .”
He cleared his throat, which suddenly felt as if there was too much blood
within it. “I was simply... w a iting for the right moment to
—”
“To what? Kill me? Is that your plan?”
He nodded his head.
“Because I will be your... w h a t ? Hunting trophy?”
“Something like that.”
“Well . . . if you are to be my killer, then you should know who you kill. I
am Clarinda Redeye of the Piri.” She knelt into the river and playfully
splashed some water toward him.
“Were you to kill me, you will have destroyed a very impor-
tant member of the Piri race. For my mother is our Mistress.”
“Your ‘mistress’? Is that like your ruler?”
She shrugged. “I suppose.” She cupped both her hands, collecting water in it .
. .
. . . and suddenly flung the water in Eutok’s face.
He blinked furiously, blinded for only a moment, but it was enough, for
Clarinda was quickly atop him. She had al-
most no weight to speak of, but there was strength in her arms, and the heels
of her feet dug down and in to the back of his knees. It was enough to throw
Eutok’s center of bal-
ance out of whack. He tried to cover, failed, stumbled, and fell backward into
the water. Just like that, his head and face were submerged.
Clarinda looked down at him, visible in wavery fashion through the water. She

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was smiling and licking her lips. He tried to throw her off but she was
straddling him firmly, and his attempts to bring his sword around were
easily thwarted as, with one hand, she held his arm immobilized.
She’s go-
ing to drown me, he thought frantically, drown me and drink the blood from my
lifeless body...
She brought her lips down and kissed him with a furious passion that took all
the remaining breath out of him. Then she was gone. Eutok threw himself
upright, coughing furi-
ously, swinging his sword at empty air.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
289

Once more her lightly mocking laughter reached his ears, and he saw her
standing some feet away, still naked, still unashamed.
“You could have killed me just then!” he shouted at her, and even as he did
so, he realized just how ridiculous his complaint must have sounded to her.
Nor did she let it pass. “As you would have me, had I
given you the opportunity. Yet I didn’t.”
“No. You didn’t.” He lowered his sword and touched his hand to his lips.
“Instead you kissed me. Why?”
“Because I’ve never before kissed a Trull.”
“And that is all the reason you require for doing some-
thing? Never having done it before?”
“More often than not.” She smiled. “You have a curious taste. You remind me of
rock. And dirt. You taste of strength.
I t w a s... i n t e r e s t i n g . W a s i t i n t e r e s t i n g f o
r y o u ? How do I
taste to you?”
“Like blistering heat . . . and ice cold. All at the same time.”
“Hunh.” She seemed to consider that briefly. “I like the sound of that,” she
decided. “What is your name?”
“I am Eutok.” He had no idea why, but he puffed out his chest slightly. “I am
also the offspring of a leader. My mother is queen.”
“ O o o... t u c k . ” She rolled the unfamiliar name around in her mouth.
“And what would you now with me, Oootuck, son of the Trull queen. Given the
chance, would you kill me? Or would you kiss me?”
“I . . .” The aroma of flowers was even stronger to him than before, and he
felt his heart racing within his chest. He was standing there, dripping with
water, facing a creature that he had come to kill as an offering to his
mother, and all he could think of was the press of her lips against his. “I .
. .
don’t know,” he said at last.
“That is a start,” she told him. “Come here again some-
time. Perhaps I will be here.” She stepped back and the darkness swallowed
her as even Eutok’s sight was not able to discern her.
290
PETER DAVID

“You forgot your clothes!” he called after her.
“Keep them!” her amused voice floated to him from the gloom. “Think of me
fondly as you hold them close to you when you sleep.”
He left then, picking up her garments and tucking them into his tunic. When he
returned to the spot several days later, she was not there. But several days
after that, she was.
They met and spoke for a long time of their respective races, and learned of
one another, and the kisses were prolonged, which led to other things that
no Trull female had ever done t o o r f o r E u t o k... p r obably, he

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suspected, because they had never conceived of such things or thought them
possible.
After they became lovers, Clarinda and Eutok were so attuned to one another
that somehow he would just . . . know...
when she was going to be at their place. And likewise, she could always find
him. Eventually she even developed the knack for saying his name effortlessly.
So it went for a long time, for the darkness of the Under-
ground provides generous cover for hiding a relationship that would certainly
spell the death of either or both of its p a r t i c i p a n t s i f d i s c
o v e r e d...
ii.
Eutok was stunned to discover Clarinda, crouched on the shore of the hot
spring where they had first met. Her legs were drawn up tightly, her face was
resting upon her knees, and her sides were rapidly heaving, racked by sobs.
Hardly a day went by when Eutok did not, in the privacy of his imagination,
recall those first meetings with Clarinda.
The thrill of discovery, the way she had yielded up her inner-
most secrets and pleasures to him. It was as if they were bonded in some
primal manner that they could not fully un-
derstand, but that neither of them should ever question lest it turn to ash in
the white heat of investigation.
And in all that time, he had never seen Clarinda in the depths of despair as
he was seeing her now. Indeed, he
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
291

wouldn’t have thought her capable of being so morose. Yet here she was, mired
in misery. Not only that, but from the very beginning they had automatically
employed caution in all their dealings. Speaking in soft voices had been sec-
ond nature to them, for although the places where they met were typically
beyond the boundaries of both Piri and Trull habitation, neither of them
desired to take any chances. Yet
Clarinda was crying openly, making no attempt to modulate her voice or get
her wailing under control.
“What’s the matter with you?” he whispered as he drew n e a r . “ C l a r i n
d a...? ”
“You came.” She drew an arm across her pale face, wip-
ing away tears.
“Of course I came. I always come.” He knelt before her, taking one of her
slender hands and gently pressing it between his two large, meaty ones. “How
now? Why the tragedy? Has someone died? Considering there is no love lost
between you and yours, I’d almost think such a passing would be cause for
celebration.”
“ I h e a r d... ” S h e t ook a deep breath and let it out slowly in order
to steady herself. “I heard my mother speaking... ”
“Yes?”
“I heard her speaking... t o a n Ocular.”
“Really?” That development intrigued Eutok. “Which one?”
“I don’t know,” she said impatiently. “They were outside, I didn’t get a
good look, and besides, they all look alike to me.”
“All right . . . but then what—?”
She gripped him firmly by the arm. He winced as her nails dug into his flesh,
but tried to give no outward sign of his discomfort. “It’s all heading in the
wrong direction, Eutok. All of it. They were speaking of . . . of . . .” She
was having trouble finding the words at first. “Of formalizing an
arrangement,” she said finally. “One in which the Ocular would be
domesticated. Willing sources of sustenance . . .”
“It would never happen,” Eutok said with a disdainful
292

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PETER DAVID

laugh. “The Ocular? Lining up to be meals on legs? The whole idea is
ridiculous... ”
“They made it sound not so ridiculous,” Clarinda said.
She had managed to get her emotions under control, but she was still obviously
concerned about what she had over-
heard. “As if it might be something that the Ocular would a g r e e t o... e
v e n c o m e t o e m b r ace.”
“Never,” he said even more firmly. “Nagel would never a l l o w... ”
“I suspect they are going to try and get Nagel out of the picture,” Clarinda
told him. She got to her feet and he tried to reach over to embrace her, but
she shook off his grasp.
Instead she paced furiously, although her weight was such that she made no
sound as she did so. “One by one, I’m los-
ing the best hopes I have for my so- called people being an-
nihilated! The Ocular hate the Piri with a fiery passion! If you Trulls were
willing to provide aid to the Ocular, they could wipe the Piri out!”
“Do you think I haven’t tried to influence my queen mother?” demanded Eutok.
“Because I assure you, I have!
I’ve spoken to her about it so much that, if I bring it up again, she will
probably try to tear me apart with her bare hands! We
Trulls could overrun them, but no! We could aid the Ocular in annihilating
them, but no! As much as my mother believes your lot to be animals worthy of
no more consideration than we’d afford an insect, still she will not take the
responsibility for genocide.”
“Eutok, don’t you see...? ” she started to say.
But he cut her off with an abrupt sweep of his arm.
“Don’t you see that it is not our way! It is the Trull way to maintain the
balance of power. That way, we never have to worry about losing the business
of any one side due to their being destroyed by our tech.”
“So you perpetuate the violence, but never present any means of ending it one
way or the other.” There was clear disdain in her voice, something he had
never heard from her.
“Well . . . yes,” he admitted. “That’s more or less the plan.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
293

“It’s a horrible plan.”
“It’s been working for us for a good long time now!” Eutok said, allowing his
own annoyance with the situation to bubble over. He felt heartsick that she
was upset, but at the same time, he felt as if she were singling him out for
blame when he had done nothing to warrant it. “I don’t think you have any
right to complain about it. You have the sins of your own peo-
ple to concern yourself with. So don’t be heaping monumen-
tal piles of shit on me, all right?”
She stared at him, wide- eyed, and he felt instant contri-
tion (although deep down he also still believed he was right). With a sigh, he
reached for her to pull her toward him consolingly, but she batted away his
hands. She had also, however, stopped crying, so that was something of a
bless-
ing. “Clarinda... C l a r , ” h e a m e n ded, using the affectionate
diminutive. “I am sorry if I offended you.”
“If?”
“I’m sorry that I offended you,” he amended.
She shook her head woefully. “All the time you’ve known m e... been inside
me... a n d y o u s till know and under-
stand so little. All you Trulls, all the races... y o u p r obably think

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that we Piri only drink deeply of the blood of one of you. You know nothing of
our day- to- day... r a t s . ”
“Rats?”
“Those gray, furry creatures. The Morts called them rats.”
“Yes, I know what they are. What about them?”
“A rat is a typical Piri meal.”
Eutok made a disgusted face. “Truly? Because they’re r a t h e r r e p e l l
e n t c r e a t u r e s... ”
“On the outside. On the inside, their blood is as red as anything else’s.
Picture that, Eutok,” she said. “Picture your lover, picking rat fur out of
her teeth. Not a pleasant image, is it?”
“Why are you saying these things, Clarinda?”
“To make you understand how vile we are!” she told him.
What ever pity she had felt for herself had been mercurially replaced with
intense self- loathing. “That we deserve to perish as a race. That maybe I
deserve to as well . . .”
294
PETER DAVID

“Clar . . .”
“Maybe we truly are the animals they all say we are.”
“Clarinda.” He put his arms around her and drew her tight. He felt her
trembling against him. “Things will work out.”
“
How will they?”
“ S o m e h o w... ”
Her body tightened and she pushed him away, turning her back to him. “Nebulous
‘maybe’s, that’s what you present me with, and you think that somehow can ease
me. The problems
I have to deal with are far less than nebulous, Eutok. You speak of how, at
some unknown point in time, a solution will be found. Let me tell you the
realities of the here and now, Eutok.” She turned to face him, her chin
pointed high, as if she were speaking to the populace of a vast chamber. “At
any time, at any moment . . . my mother could decide that it is time for me to
mate. There are no laws governing her deci-
sion, no guidelines. Nor is there any basis for appeal. Should the Mistress
select a mate from the population of the Piri, I
am his. He will mate with me, and I will produce a child, and the next thing
you know, I will be made into the same gen-
derless, pathetic creature my mother is. She, Sunara Redeye, acts as if she is
a sexual being when, in fact, she can never en-
joy true sensation or plea sure again. That is my fate, Eutok, unless
something happens to change that. How attractive will
I be to you then, Eutok? With these gone,” and she cupped her breasts, looking
at him defiantly, “and my main source of ecstasy nothing more than a hunk of
scorched flesh.”
“I won’t let that happen... ”
She moved quickly toward him, grabbing with fierce ur-
gency at his shoulders. “How will you stop it?” she asked desperately. “Will
you take me back to the Hub to live with you?”
“ O f c o u r s e n o t ! ” h e s a i d . “ T h a t w o u l d b e... y
o u k n o w that’s impossible, Clar. Interspecies relations of any kind a r e
f o r b i d d e n... s a v e f o r d a lliances with Morts, but they don’t
count.”
“Forbidden, save for exceptions granted by rulers.”
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“My mother would never make such an exception.”
“You don’t know—”
“Yes, I do,” he said firmly.
“ Y o u h a v e n ’ t a s k e d... ”
“I don’t have to!” he assured her. “Clar, my mother . . .”
“ B u t i f y o u a s k e d... i f y o u o n l y t r i ed, at least—”
“Clarinda, listen to me!”
Eutok felt as if this was the sin-
gle most exhausting conversation he’d ever had in his life.
“My mother can scarcely tolerate me as it is! Don’t you understand that? It’s
not exactly as if she cares about my happiness under normal circumstances.
Something as ab-
normal as us—”
“You think I’m abnormal?”
“I think our relationship doesn’t exactly fall within the bounds of what
most Trulls consider routine romance, yes!”
he said in exasperation. “To say nothing of the fact that if she provided us
sanctuary, the chances are huge that it will bring the wrath of the Piri down
upon us. By remaining neutral, we have avoided a crippling war. That
protection will be gone if you take up residence with me. How favor-
ably do you think the rest of my people will look upon you if they see you as
an invitation for the Piri to descend upon us? We Trulls do not shrink from
fights, but neither do we seek them out. The Trulls would consider your coming
to live in the Hub as most definitely seeking unnecessary trou-
ble.”
“You could explain to them—”
“Explain to them what? That due to my selfishness and a precipitous love
affair, I’ve decided almost single- handedly to put the entire Trull nation
squarely into harm’s way?
Something tells me they’re not exactly going to embrace that.”
Abruptly, she said, “Then we can strike out on our own.”
“No.”
“Eutok,” Clarinda told him with mounting desperation, “you’ve no idea what you
mean to me. I think of you con-
stantly. I swear to you, we can be happy together! Why can’t you believe that
as I do?”
296
PETER DAVID

“I have responsibilities as Chancellor. I have obligations to my people. And
I’ll be damned,” he added grimly, “if I
leave the well- being of my people to my idiot brother, Ulu-
rac the Spiritu Sanctum. They need me.”
“And I don’t?”
“I know you do.” He took her hands in his. They were slim and delicate
compared with his own hard, rough hands.
“And I need you. But I can’t be so selfish as to abandon sev-
eral thousand Trulls just to pursue the happiness of two peo-
ple, even when those two people are you and me.”
“What then?” She pulled away from him. “What will we do?”
“I don’t know. But something. I will find a way.”
She nodded, biting her lower lip, and he was pleased she appeared to be
believing him until he saw trickles of blood emerging from her mouth and
realized she was actually tearing small holes in her own lips. “Clar,” he
said, reaching out gently and brushing the blood away. “Stop that.”
“I need you to promise me something, Eutok.”
“Of course. Anything.”
“You shouldn’t say that unless—”
“Unless I mean it, of course,” he said with conviction.

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“Again, anything. Don’t you understand? I cannot live with-
out you. I would do anything you ask.”
She stood several feet away from him, her back to him, and her arms were
wrapped around herself as if she were feeling a chill but trusted only
herself to keep herself warm.
“I never,” she said after a pause, “want to live as my mother does. I never
want to be that person. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Of course,” he said with a touch of weariness. “And I
said I’d find a way, and I meant it—”
“No,” she told him firmly, still not looking at him. “I don’t think you’re
truly comprehending what I’m saying. There may come a time when I say
otherwise. Who knows what could happen to my mind? My mother might induce a
change of my point of view with potions I cannot even guess at. Or pure
determination to live might overwhelm subsequent
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
297

worries about the quality of that life. But I’m telling you, here and now,
while my mind is yet clear, that I don’t want to live like that. Be the
creature that she is. I want you to prom-
ise me that you’ll make certain I don’t.”
“I promise,” he said with conviction. “I swear a blood oath, I swear on the
lives of Trulls everywhere, I will make certain you don’t live... l i k e...
t h a t... ” B u t t h e l a s t t h r e e words were said with
dwindling certainty even as he spoke them, for he finally, belatedly, realized
exactly what she was asking.
“You’re asking me to kill you.” There was dull shock in his voice. “You’re
asking me to make certain that you die.”
“It is the only way. I only ask that you make it quick and painless, if at all
possible.”
“Clar . . .”
“It is the only way
.” She laughed bitterly. “I mean, that would bring it full circle, wouldn’t
it. You were, after all, in-
tending to slay me when we first met. So it’s not as if the notion is beyond
your capacity for consideration.”
“It is now.”
“No.” She whirled to face him, her gaze burning with in-
tensity. “You promised. You swore an oath, upon the lives of your people. Do
oaths mean nothing to you and yours?”
“They mean a great deal,” he said, “but . . .”
“There can’t be any ‘but’ about this. You promised. I hold y o u t o i t .
I f I e v e r s t o p c o m i n g t o y o u... hunt me down.”
“You want me to go into the stronghold of the Piri and probably throw my own
life away in trying to kill you...? ”
“Why not?” she asked, sounding surprisingly reasonable about the whole
matter. “You did, after all, say you couldn’t live without me. Or was that
as meaningless an utterance as your blood oath?”
He opened his mouth, then closed it. “All right,” he said, knowing he’d been
outmaneuvered. “As you ask, my lady, so shall it be done. If the unthinkable
should occur, I will find a way to separate your head from your shoulders.
Will that suffice?”
298
PETER DAVID

“Yes. Oh gods, yes.” She went to him then, pressed her body against his. “You
are wonderful. You are all that any lover could ask. Take me.”
“I’m really not in the mood right now, Clarinda... ”

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But she would not accept that, and she licked the inside of his ear and begged
and teased and cajoled. Before he knew it, the matter was out of his hands as
his body reacted to her urgency without the cooperation or willingness of his
mind. He cursed his weakness of will, and resolved not to enjoy what was
happening, but instead to be merely a mute and unhappy witness in the
activity. Even that re-
solve, however, crumbled before her seductive power, and soon talk of death
and beheadings was the farthest thing from his mind.
It would, however, come back to him later in the privacy of his own quarters,
and would haunt him for many days a n d n i g h t s t o c o m e... n o t
t h a t day and night had all that much meaning in the Underground.
FIREDRAQUE HALL, PERRIZ
i.
“Where is he?”
Nicrominus heard her voice echoing through the hall, but it did not prompt him
even to glance up from the text he was studying. His daughter bellowing over
some damned thing or another was certainly nothing new. He wasn’t about to let
it distract him. Still, he knew that he was on borrowed time, in a sense, and
so was determined to remain focused on his activities for as long as possible.
Which, as it turned out, wasn’t all that long.
He did not hear the replies of whoever it was his daughter
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
299

was bellowing at. If past occasions were any indication, that was likely
because the assorted servants were busy cower-
ing and replying in terrified whispers. Perhaps there weren’t even audible
replies, but just trembling, pointing fingers.
What ever the case, it seemed not long at all before there came a repeated,
angry thudding at the door of his private study. The door rattled beneath the
power of the pounding, and Nicrominus had to admit to himself that—whatever
else one might say about his offspring—she was remark-
ably strong.
“Father!”
she was shouting through the door. “Open up this instant!”
“I am old and weak,” he called to her, “and cannot muster the strength
necessary even to cross the distance in this room to—”
“Spare me, Father, and open up!”
“
You open up,” he retorted. “It’s unlocked.”
There was a pause and then the door swung open.
Evanne, his daughter, stood there, looking out of breath, with a film of sweat
beading on her red, leathery skin. Her tail was twitching almost spastically,
reflecting her agita-
tion. She was so tall and slender that she might have passed for male on first
glance. But when she walked it was with an almost exaggerated swaying of her
hips that, Nicrominus occasionally thought, served as a sort of over-
compensation.
Still, he loved looking at her. She had such grace, such confidence. Whenever
he spoke to her, she always leaned forward, her gaze intent, making it
abundantly clear that she was listening to every word. The intelligence that
flickered in her eyes made her old father proud. He remembered when she’d
first been hatched, and he’d been foolish enough to be disappointed because
he’d thought only a male could possibly possess the sort of intellect he
craved in an offspring. How wrong he had been.
“You could have told me it was unlocked,” she said.
He felt constrained to point out, “I did.”
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“I mean before I began pounding like a fool.”
“At what point did you give me the opportunity?” he asked reasonably.
She made a dismissive wave as she entered, as if the rea-
soning of Nicrominus was at fault. “I’m not going to dis-
cuss your door when there are for more important things to be concerned
about.”
“What a relief. So how was your trip to the border lands?”
“I don’t want to talk about that now.”
He set aside the texts in front of him. “This is stimulat-
ing,” he said with false joviality. “If we go through enough things you don’t
want to talk about, we could actually wind up discussing nothing at all. Then
you can go on about your business and I—”
“It’s your business we need to discuss, Father!”
“Yes,” he sighed, “I was afraid we were heading in that direction.”
“The
Travelers, Father?” She approached him with con-
cern writ large upon her face. “The Travelers came to con-
f r o n t y o u a n d y o u s i m p l y...
sat here?”
“If I am going to sit, here is as good a place as any,” he said reasonably.
“They could have killed you!”
“It didn’t seem terribly likely, since I had done nothing to them.”
“Travelers don’t require reasons.”
“All creatures,” he corrected her gently, “require reasons.
It’s just that sometimes the reasons they require are foolish ones. Still, I
wasn’t concerned... ”
“How could you not be concerned !”
—
He spoke over her protests. “Considering,” he said force-
fully, “that no harm came to me, as is evidenced by the fact that you’re
speaking to me now and I’m here with all my limbs and most of my faculties
intact, it would appear that my lack of concern was well placed. Please,
Evanne, do not treat me as if I were an imbecile.”
She looked taken aback by the admonishment. “I would
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
301

never treat you that way, Father. Nor would I think of you that way.”
“Imagine my relief.”
“Father—”
“They came to speak,” said Nicrominus, coming around his desk. He made sure to
play up his slowness of body to eke out what small dregs of pity his daughter
might feel for him, if for no other reason than to get her to modulate her
voice. “Actually, one of them spoke. The rest just stood there looking
menacing.”
Despite what she clearly saw as a situation that had been fraught with peril
for her father, Evanne was also obviously intrigued. She tilted her head
slightly, her forked tongue flicking out. “Of what did the one speak?”
He reached into his robes and held up the hotstar. At first
Evanne barely afforded it a glance. “A hotstar,” she said briskly. “What of
it?”
“Look at it closely.”
He held it out to her and she took it from him. Again she didn’t seem
especially interested, but he was pleased to see that she noticed it quickly.
“Wait . . . it’s not glowing,” she said.
“Yes.”
“It has no energy. It’s dead.”

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“Yes,” he said again.
She looked up at him. “Is that possible?”
“Apparently so.”
“But how—?”
“Ahhhh,” Nicrominus said, waggling a finger, “and now we come to it. The ‘how’
is what the Travelers came to me to discover.”
“Came to you? Why you?”
“I wish I had a definitive answer for you, Evanne,” he ad-
mitted. “Perhaps the simple truth is that they just had no idea who else to
go to. Luck of the draw, as it were.”
“ S o... what have you been doing?” She glanced at the texts upon his desk.
“Studying up on hotstars?”
302
PETER DAVID

“Of course. What else would
I be doing?”
“You could have Xeris doing it. He is your foremost stu-
dent.”
“If the Travelers had desired Xeris to do it, they would have gone to him.
They came to me. Why burden Xeris with this, anyway?”
“Why burden yourself?”
“When a burden is assigned, you accept it and deal with it,” he told her. “I’m
studying the origin of hotstars, all available information as to how they
function, plus any evidence—either scientific or anecdotal—that would indi-
cate a time when they’ve gone dead or shown a diminish-
ment in power. So far, it’s been very educational. Very informative, oh my,
yes.”
“All right.” She leaned forward, craning her neck so that she could see more
clearly one of the texts that he had un-
wound upon his desk. “And what have you learned so far about the problem?”
“So far?”
“Yes.”
“Nothing, actually.”
Her head slumped forward and she shook it woefully.
“Then how can you possibly tell me that you’ve found it ed-
ucational and informative?”
“Because,” he replied easily, “it is always informative to learn about the
limits of our own knowledge. It certainly helps one to maintain perspective.”
She looked as if she couldn’t decide whether to yell at him or laugh, and
finally she chose the latter. She chuckled softly and cupped his chin. “I
never know what to make of you, Father.”
“Neither do I.” He patted her hand and continued, “Don’t worry yourself about
this hotstar business, Evanne. Just as importantly, don’t worry Xeris about
it. I have the matter firmly under control.”
“Have the Travelers told you how quickly they desire your answer on this?”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
303

“No,” he said, “but I doubt they’ll want me to take my time. So I’m to giving
this the utmost priority.”
“I have confidence in you, Father.”
She turned away and, as she headed for the door, Nicrominus called after her,
“It’s good to have you back from the border lands, daughter.”
“It’s good to be back, Father.”
He smiled at as she went out the door. “Such a delightful girl. If I’d
realized the daughter was going to turn out so well, I’d never have devoured
the mother. Ah well,” he sighed heavily and went back to his reading. “Live

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and learn, I always say.”
ii.
When Evanne told Xeris the news, he could barely contain himself.
“Running out, you say? Are you sure!?” They had seated themselves in a
courtyard outside Firedraque Hall, and
Xeris was actually bouncing up and down, much to
Evanne’s amusement. “The Travelers are concerned be-
cause the hotstars are running out of power?”
“Now, I didn’t say that,” Evanne reminded him, and then she laughed at his
enthusiasm. “Xeris, please! I can scarcely stand to look at you, you’re
bobbing about so! Calmly!” She put out her arms to him and then folded him
into her em-
brace. “You know,” she said, “I would have thought that, considering I’m your
betrothed, most—if not all—of your enthusiasm would be focused upon my
return, not my fa-
ther’s research. Perhaps I should be jealous of him and his musty texts?”
“Of course not,” he assured her. “There is nothing that is more important to
me than you. But still, this development, it’s—”
“It may be nothing,” she said. “Remember, it’s just the one hotstar that’s
gone dead. It could be some sort of . . . of fluke.”
304
PETER DAVID

“No,” he said firmly. Evanne was seated on a stone bench, and Xeris swung his
legs around so that he was straddling it. Even though he was trying to contain
him-
self, he was still bouncing slightly. He knew he probably looked ridiculous,
but he didn’t care. “No, I don’t believe that. Where there’s one, there’s
more, and it’s not just that.
If this is actually not isolated but, instead, a widespread phenomenon, it
could completely change the balance of power.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Evanne, her tail twitching in confusion.
“That the relationship between the
Firedraques and the Mandraques could—”
“No, no, no!” He swung his legs up and, with a hop, was now crouching on the
bench, thumping it repeatedly with a fist. “You’re thinking too small! Too
locally! This is far, far bigger! How can you not see the possibilities?”
“Why don’t you enlighten me, then,” she said dryly, “con-
sidering that I’m obviously far too intellectually stunted to know what you’re
talking about without a detailed explana-
tion.”
The sarcasm in her tone went completely past him. “You have to know what
hotstars are.”
“They’re power sources.”
“And beyond that?”
She shrugged. “No one knows beyond that. They just . . .
are. Both in the Elserealms beyond the rift, and here in this sphere, they
simply exist. Some theorize that they are culled from rocks that fell from the
skies, although that wouldn’t explain the numerous . . .” Then she stopped
when she saw him furiously shaking his head. “No? That’s not right?”
“It’s right so far as we know, but there’s far more un-
known than known.”
“I believe I just said that. You know, talking to you can be as infuriating as
talking to my father.”
“I will take that as a compliment.”
“It wasn’t intended as such.”
He scratched the back of his head, obviously trying to find the best way to
approach the topic. “Hotstars have
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305

always been a sort of . . . of ‘given’ in the Elserealms. They were an energy
source, and they were used there to power our tech. When the Twelve Races
were dispatched here in the Third Wave, one of the things that our exilers
sent along with us was a sizable supply of hotstars.”
“Of course,” Evanne said with not a little bitterness. “Be-
cause those who exiled us were ever so generous. Wanting to assuage their
guilty consciences by providing us with some helpful tokens of the home they
were banishing us from.”
“True enough. The thing is, no one in the Elserealms ever seriously questioned
whence hotstars managed to derive their seemingly endless supply of energy.
They were just al-
w a y s t h e s e... t hese sources of power that did what we needed them
to do, fueled what we needed them to fuel.
Those who did try to launch serious inquiries into the ori-
g i n s o f h o t s t a r s... ”
“Were rounded up,” said Evanne. “In fact, most of the leading investigators
into the origins of hotstars were con-
victed of heresy and included in the First Wave. Obviously hotstars are
something of a sensitive subject . . .”
“Which makes it all the more curious that Travelers would come to your father
to discuss them openly,” Xeris pointed out.
Slowly Evanne nodded, looking thoughtful.
Seeing that he had her full attention, Xeris continued, “What was interesting
was that those hotstars which were brought over here were even more
potent than the hotstars were back in the Elserealms. That potency was one of
the few bright spots—no pun intended—that the Banished were able to
discern in the depths of their plight. Tech worked better here, with greater
efficiency and power than ever it did in the Elserealms.”
“But no one ever knew why.”
“No,” Xeris agreed, and then he puffed out his chest and said, “but I’ve
developed some theories in that regard.”
“You’ve developed them?” she asked. “Or others devel-
306
PETER DAVID

oped them and you’ve just become thoroughly familiar with them.”
He deflated slightly. “Some of both,” he said defensively, and then leaned
forward, his gaze intent upon her. “What I
think,” he said, “is that hotstars don’t have any sort of inter-
nal generation of power themselves. I think they are chan-
nels for something. Energy conduits, if you will.”
“You mean that what ever power comes from the hotstars, i t ’ s a c t u a l
l y o r i g i n a t i n g e l s e w h e r e a n d t h e h o t s t a r s
a r e...
are linked to it somehow? And they funnel the energy through?”
“Yes, exactly,” he said with growing excitement. “From some sort of a
Primestar.”
“Primestar?” She looked doubtful. “Did you come up with that term?”
He nodded proudly. “Do you like it?”
“Honestly? It sounds a bit inane.”
Xeris didn’t try to hide his annoyance. “No, it’s not. It’s not inane at all.
In fact, it’s the opposite of inane. It’s . . . ane.”
Evanne stared at him for incredulously, and then couldn’t help but laugh
with delight. “All right, you win,” she said.
“It’s ane. So tell me about this Primestar then.”
“That’s the thing,” he said. “My guess is that, what ever a n d w h e r e v

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e r t h e P r i m e s t a r i s... i t ’ s h e r e . ”
“Here? You mean here in Perriz?”
“No. Well, actually,” he corrected himself, “maybe yes. I
couldn’t say for sure. The truth is that I don’t know what this Primestar
would look like or be like. I don’t know any-
thing about its nature. Maybe it’s somewhere far off in the sky, or maybe it’s
sitting beneath our very feet or hanging invisibly between the two of us.
Perhaps it’s as gargantuan as a continent or as small as a dust mote. No way
to say for sure. But my guess is that what ever the Primestar is, it’s in
this plane rather than the Elserealms. And that’s why the hotstars are far
more potent here.”
“So you’re saying that in relocating us here, the Banish-
ers inadvertently gave us a tool that made us even stronger
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
307

than we were back home.” When he nodded, she smirked and said, “Well, that’s
a nice bit of irony.”
“I think there’s more than irony going on now, though.”
She tilted her head slightly, her tongue snapping out.
“What do you mean?”
“The hotstar that the Travelers brought your father.”
“What about it?”
“He said it had gone dead?”
“That’s right.”
He scratched the underside of his snout, then got up and started to walk in a
small circle. He didn’t say anything for a time, and Evanne watched him until
she grew bored. “Are you going to be coming to a point anytime soon?” she in-
quired politely.
“Why should they care?” he asked.
“Care about what?”
“About us. You said it yourself: Deep down, they know that exiling us here
in their ‘Final Solution’ to the problem of the Twelve Races was a deeply
unfair action. They pro-
vided us such amenities as hotstars as a sop to their guilty consciences. But
if the hotstars here on the Damned World were running out of power, do you
really think they’d be that concerned over it?”
“No, I suppose not.”
“I suppose not as well.”
“I’m still not seeing the signifi—” Then her voice trailed off and her eyes
widened. “Ahhhhh,” she said.
“You begin to see.”
“The hotstar running out of power . . .”
“Yes?”
“It’s not an isolated instance. More than that . . .”
“Yes?” he prompted her once more.
“It’s happening back in the Elserealms as well.”
He clapped his hands together once approvingly. “And there it is,” he said
with an air of triumph. “Exactly what
I was thinking. It’s happening back in the Elserealms as well.”
308
PETER DAVID

“For all we know,” she said with growing excitement, “it’s happening more
comprehensively there. I mean, here we’re being handed one hotstar, and that
may be the only one. But the Elserealms might be experiencing some mas-
sive sort of power shortage. They could have hotstars fail-
i n g b y t h e h u n d r e d s... b y t h e t h o usands!”

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“It’s possible,” he nodded. “Now, of course, we don’t know for sure. But that
might be the case. And if it is, that opens up some serious possibilities.”
“You’re saying they might all have to come here.”
“That’s one notion, yes.”
Evanne laughed with almost childish glee. She leaped to her feet and threw her
arms around herself, hugging herself delightedly. “Imagine it!” she cried out.
“Our exilers, being subjected to the same treatment they inflicted upon us!
The
Banishers banished! Forced to leave the idyllic environs of the Elserealms to
fend for themselves here on the Damned
World. The advantage shifting to us for once! Not all the
Travelers in the world would be able to keep us from them!
It’s too delicious!”
“There’s another possibility that’s even better.”
“And that would be?”
His eyes flashed maliciously. “It’s becoming clear that the power and
properties of the hotstars are something that we haven’t even begun to
grasp. What if we’re able to wield them in some manner?”
“ W i e l d t h e m ? Y o u m e a n... a s w eapons?”
“Exactly,” he said. “What if somehow we were able to harness the hotstars,
or even the Primestar itself, so that—
even if the Elserealms are currently not experiencing any shortage of
power—we were able to draw the power off from the hotstars they did have?
Or, at the very least, find a means of blocking the energy flow from this
plane to the other and thus cause the very outage that we’re speculating
about? If we were able to become masters of our own fate through
manipulation of the hotstars, the Banishers would have to come to us for their
energy needs!”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
309

She gasped. “That’s an even better notion than what we were just talking
about!”
“Isn’t it?” He smirked.
“But how would we do any of this? Find your theoretical
Primestar. Gain control of the hotstars in the way that you describe?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. Then his face took on a grim and determined
expression. “I swear this to you, though, on m y l i f e... i f i t i s
possible, I will find a way to do it. It could mean a whole new life for us,
Evanne. For you and I, for your father, the Preceptor, the Firedraques... f o
r t h e
Twelve Races as a whole. If we’re able to harness the power of the
hotstars to gain dominance over our exilers, it might well be what finally
brings all the Twelve Races together and ends the constant cycle of violence.”
“Because we would be uniting against the common en-
emy with an actual chance of defeating them?”
“Exactly.” He paused and then added with a smile, “Fail-
ing that . . . if we Firedraques wind up using it to eliminate all other races
save ours, well . . . I could easily live with that outcome as well.”
“As could I, my love,” she said as she stroked his snout affectionately. “As
could I.”
iii.
Nicrominus was far too old and experienced to allow himself to be startled by
anything. So when a voice spoke to him from above, at least outwardly he
didn’t react in any discernible manner.
“She shouldn’t speak to you that way.”
He had been staring off into space, contemplating the hotstar, and so didn’t
react immediately. He waited to see if the speaker repeated herself. He didn’t
have to wait very long. “I said she shouldn’t speak to you that way.”

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Very slowly he turned in his chair and looked up toward the raf ters. The
room had a vaulted ceiling and so he had to
310
PETER DAVID

squint to see the highest part of it. There was a slightly movement in the
shadows.
“So,” he said with a trace of amusement, “my longtime lurker has chosen to
speak.”
As skilled as Nicrominus was at keeping his feelings and reactions to himself,
his observer was incapable. She spoke with a mixture of surprise and delight.
“You’ve known I was here? All this time?”
“Skittering about in the upper reaches of our hall? Of course, my dear. I’m el
der ly but not addled.” He gestured for her to come down from her perch.
Instead she hugged the shadows with even greater ferocity. “Who are you?”
There was a pause, and then she replied in a singsong voice, “My brother says
I shouldn’t talk to people. He says it’s bad. Bad bad bad.”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. Who is your brother?”
“He’s the next king.”
“Is he?” Nicrominus smiled at that. “That’s his plan, is it?”
“Yes. But I’m not supposed to tell anyone that.”
“I see. And who told you not to tell anyone that?”
“Arren.”
“Ahhhh,” said Nicrominus, although her words merely confirmed what he had
already surmised. “So you would be
Norda Kinklash.”
She gasped as if he had performed an astounding conjur-
ing trick. “How did you know?” Her tail whipped around one of the raf ters
and, releasing her grip with her hands, she allowed herself to dangle
supported solely by her tail. “Can you read minds?” she asked with an
impressed whisper, al-
though her voice carried over the distance.
“It occasionally appears that way. I haven’t seen you in some time. You’re
much taller than I recall.”
Norda gently swung herself back and forth. “I growed.”
“Indeed.”
“And I hid. You didn’t see me because I’ve been hiding. I
like to hide. I’m very good at it.”
“Yes, you are,” he readily agreed. He tilted his head
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
311

slightly, taking her in. “Yet you’ve come out of hiding now.
Why?”
She stopped rocking. “I didn’t like the way that female was talking to you. It
wasn’t nice.”
“My daughter is very outspoken.”
Norda started to climb her own tail until she draped her-
self over a beam, her front and back hanging from either side. “Would you like
me to kill her for you?” she asked carelessly.
Nicrominus appeared to give the matter serious consider-
ation. “Not at the moment,” he finally said with a decisive air.
She shrugged, and it seemed to Nicrominus that she had forgotten the offer
almost as soon as she had uttered it. He took a cautious step forward,
although it didn’t really bring him any closer to her since she was high up.
“The way fa-
thers and daughters speak to one another . . . that’s very im-
portant to you, is it?”

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Norda shrugged again, and folded her arms across her chest.
“I remember your father,” he continued. “I remember him carry ing you on his
shoulders when you were very lit-
tle.”
She said nothing at first in response, but something told
Nicrominus not to speak too quickly. Finally Norda said, sounding very far
away, “I wish I did.”
“You remember nothing of your father? How about your mother?”
Abruptly Norda vaulted from high above and plummeted toward the floor.
Nicrominus, rarely nonplussed, barked out an alarmed cry as Norda fell with
dizzying speed. Then she tucked her head down, her arms up and around, and
when she hit the ground she came up in a perfect roll. It brought her to
within inches of Nicrominus, who did not back up even though it was his
impulse to do so. Norda hissed, her tongue flicking out, and then—to his
surprise—put a hand to his face.
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PETER DAVID

“Will you be my father?” she asked in a voice that ached of loss. “I would
like that ever so.”
“I . . . cannot be.”
“My mother, then?” There was no trace of jest in her tone. Clearly she would
have accepted either.
Despite the absurdity of the suggestion, or perhaps be-
cause of it, the edges of his mouth turned up slightly. “I
think that even less likely.”
She stepped back from him, looking him up and down, and then she stretched out
her arms. There were thin bands of gold, bracelets, on the wrists of either
arm. She extended them to Nicrominus and, once satisfied that he had seen
them, she slid the one off her right wrist. “Here,” she said, handing it to
him. “My brother gave me these. I think he took it off the corpse of a
Mandraque many years ago. I
want you to have it. So we’ll always be together.”
“ T h a t ’ s... v e r y k i n d o f y o u . ” C a r e f u l l y h e t
ook it from her and slid it over his wrist. The cloth of his robe covered i t
. “ I h a v e t o s a y , t h o u g h... I’m still a bit unclear as to
why you’ve chosen now to come to me, make your presence k n o w n , g i v e
m e t h i s... ”
“Because sooner is better than later, and one never knows when someone is
going to go away because nobody knows what the future will bring.”
She pivoted, sprinted toward the wall, and leaped for it.
She bounded straight up the side, her clawed fingers finding the tiniest of
holds, and within seconds had made her way back to the raf ters.
“That’s true,” Nicrominus called after her, hoping that she would come back
down. “No one knows what the future will bring.”
“Except me,” she called down, and then laughed deliri-
ously, and vanished into the shadows.
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313

THE OUTSKIRTS OF FERUEL
i.
“She dreamt of the Ocular coming to us before they actu-
ally showed up, Mother. Certainly that has to have some significance to you.”
The Bottom Feeders had made camp for the eve ning, and
Zerena and Karsen were hunting. Zerena’s spear, which she had thrown with
her customary expertise, had just bagged the fourth rabbit of their outing.
She shoved the limp car-

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cass into the leather bag hanging from her belt. “That has no significance to
me whatsoever, Karsen,” she said.
“How can you say it doesn’t?”
“Like this: Iiiittttt duuuuznnnnt.”
Zerena Foux thought she was going to go out of her mind all the way back to
the encampment as Karsen went on about Jepp’s dreams and other nonsense.
“Where are you going with this, Karsen?” she asked in exasperation as they
neared the base.
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“Then why in the name of the gods do you insist on bringing it up?”
“I just . . . I feel as if it’s important somehow, that’s all.”
Zerena turned to face him, the rabbit- filled bag swinging about at her
hip. “Then here’s a suggestion, Karsen. If it’s that damnably important,
bring it up with her. Try to parse it all out in conjunction with your lady
love, but don’t—”
Karsen reddened when he heard that. “My... what?
Mother, you don’t think that I’ve... I m e a n... ”
“What?” Zerena demanded. “Don’t play games with me, Karsen. I know that you
want this Jepp girl. I’ve talked to you about this time and again, and you
keep denying it. It’s insulting to me, and you’re not making yourself look any

too good either. She’s trained to plea sure her betters. You’re her better.
Do I have to diagram it for you?”
“No, Mother,” Karsen said coldly. “No, you’ve made your contempt for both her
and me readily apparent.”
He stormed away from her, his hooves digging up clods of dirt as he went.
Zerena vaulted after him, easily covering the distance with one jump even
though she was considerably heavier and older than he, landed behind him, and
grabbed him by the arm. “Don’t take that tone with me,” she started to say.
Karsen both pushed and pulled away from her so vio-
lently that Zerena not only lost her grip but her balance. She was usually
sure- footed, but this time gravity got the better of her and Zerena tumbled
unceremoniously to the ground, narrowly avoiding squashing the rabbits in her
bag.
“Mother!” Karsen called out. “Are you all—”
With a quick sweep of her furred leg, Zerena Foux knocked
Karsen’s own legs out from under him. He tumbled roughly to the ground as she
sprang to her hooves and glowered at him.
“Karsen,” she said tightly, “I have been more patient than
I would have thought possible. I have been more patient than any head of our
clan has ever been with any child.
Thanks to you and your pet, we’re heading straight into an insane amount of
danger . . .”
“I’d like to think that Nagel of the Ocular had something to do with that,” he
pointed out, but made no effort to get up off the ground.
“
I don’t care, Karsen!
I am no longer suggesting or cajol-
ing. Now I’m telling you: Get your head out of your furry ass and back into
the game of staying alive. It’s enough that we’re on this fool suicide errand
for Nagel. I don’t want to have any further discussions with you about the
human!
None! In fact, I barely want to have any conversations with you about
anything! So if you are fond of the number of teeth currently in your mouth,
you’ll shut it and follow me back to the camp without saying another damned
word!”
Karsen started to respond, but wisely thought better of it and said nothing
more. Zerena stormed past him and he fol-
lowed her with his head slightly lowered.

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DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
315

ii.
The scorched flatness of Marsay had given way to a far more forested area.
They had camped amid a grove of trees, and the strong scent of them filled
Karsen’s nostrils, tingling his senses. Jepp was looking up at the trees in
wonderment, run-
ning her hand along the bark, fascinated by the texture. Ap-
parently the girl had never been beyond the small area that had been the
stomping ground of the Mandraques. Or, if her master had taken her out of that
immediate area, he had kept her locked away in his traveling tent wherever
they had gone, so she’d had no opportunity to experience anything else of the
rest of the world. Karsen, by contrast, had been all over the place many
times, so he had become accustomed to it all. He found it entertaining,
however, to discover the world anew through Jepp’s eyes.
That eve ning the camp was unusually quiet and restrained.
The only one who was at all convivial was Rafe Kestor, and
Karsen figured that was because Rafe had completely for-
gotten where it was that they were going or what their mission was. Instead
he regaled them with a detailed de-
scription of some great battle in which he’d taken a part.
Karsen didn’t know whether the fight had occurred in the real world or just
somewhere in Rafe Kestor’s head, but ei-
ther way it was certainly exciting enough.
Jepp was listening raptly, actually gasping now and again when Rafe Kestor got
to some particularly exciting bit. It was charming, Karsen thought, how
involved she was in the narrative.
Later that eve ning, the Bottom Feeders settled down to sleep. Gant was on
monitor duty, as he always was. Appar-
ently, although he did possess some sort of state of relax-
ation, he did not actually require sleep the way the others did.
Even when he was at his ease, the slightest vibration would bring him to full
alert in a heartbeat (presuming he actually had a heart; it was difficult to
know for certain with Gant).
Since Gant’s gelatinous mass was capable of enveloping any
316
PETER DAVID

intruder—to say nothing of the fact that he could position himself so that
people would walk right through him and find themselves immobilized—he was
the ideal sentry.
In the stillness of the night, as the others slumbered, Karsen noticed that
Jepp was lying awake, staring up at the stars. She did not appear to be
perturbed by anything in par-
tic u lar. She was simply stargazing as the glittering orbs peeked through
the foliage that formed a natural canopy above them. Nevertheless she did so
with that same childlike wonderment with which she had listened to Rafe
Kestor’s adventures.
Karsen, who was lying several feet away, rolled over to-
ward her. The movement caught her attention and she turned and smiled at him.
“Tired?” he whispered.
“Not really, for some reason,” she said.
“Care to go for a walk?”
She shrugged. “If it’s what you want,” she said.
Karsen sighed, feeling a bit worn out with all the times he had told her that
she could and should think for herself.
She had shown flashes of determination, and had even threatened—in Mingo’s

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words—to grow a spine. But every so often she would then revert to type and be
almost in-
sanely unwilling to express her own preferences. However, he had no desire to
go into it at that par tic u lar moment, and so he just said, “Yes, that’s
what I want.”
They walked through the woods in silence for a few min-
utes. She would glance shyly at him and then look away quickly when she
thought he was looking at her. There was a full moon that night, so seeing was
not a problem.
“How much do you know about your people, Jepp?” he asked.
“You mean the Mandraques and the Greatness? Well, let’s see. They—”
“No, no,” he said with a laugh. “I mean your real people.
Your species. You know... h u m ans.”
“What do I know?” she asked. “I . . . don’t think I under-
stand. I mean, I know how our bodies work—”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
317

“Your history, Jepp.” He stopped walking and leaned against a tree, folding
his arms. Small animals scampered about in the limbs high above, some of them
chittering, offering token protest to the late-night intruders. Karsen ignored
them. “Your people’s history. Their accomplish-
ments.”
“We had accomplishments?” she asked.
“Well . . . yes. Obviously. I mean, the Orb of the Trinity . . .
the bauble we’re seeking to swipe from the Trulls . . . that was devised by
your people.”
“Yes, so I’m told,” Jepp said. “But . . . I find that a little hard to
believe. I mean, well . . .” She held her arms out to her side. “Look at us!
At me, I mean. We are not as sturdily built as even the weakest of the Twelve
Races. We are sub-
jugated. I understand that we’re nearly extinct. How much of what humans
accomplished could possibly be consid-
ered of value or significance?”
“There are buildings,” Karsen pointed out. “Great, tall b u i l d i n g s... ”
“That the Twelve Races now inhabit.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
She gave him a pitying look. “Then again, how much good did any of that do us
in the long run? Or even the short run? All that we had was taken away from
us, which could only indicate that we never wanted it all that much in the
first place.”
“Is that you speaking?” asked Karsen. “Or the Great-
ness.”
She looked puzzled and even concerned at that. “The
G r e a t n e s s... i s speaking through me?” she asked with ob-
viously mounting fear. “Am I haunted...? ”
“No, not at all, I promise,” he said, trying not to laugh in the face of her
groundless concern. Then, adopting a seri-
ous mien, he took another approach. “I was just wondering whether you knew
anything of your people’s history.”
“Nothing,” she said brightly. “I once asked the Greatness about that, and he
said there was no reason to clutter my head with it.”
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PETER DAVID

“Terrific.”
“Do you know anything about them?”
“Only stories I’ve heard,” he said. “And most of the sto-

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ries, I’d... ” H i s f ace darkened slightly.
“What?” she prompted.
“I’d rather not repeat them,” Karsen told her. “I’m afraid that . . . well,
they don’t exactly portray Morts . . . humans...
in the most flattering of manners.”
“Oh.”
“Are you insulted by that?”
“Me? Oh, no!” and she laughed at that. “Oh, Karsen
Foux, do not concern yourself about that. If you don’t want to repeat them
because you’re not comfortable with it, that’s perfectly fine. But I promise
you that, in all my time in the charge of the Greatness, I’ve probably heard
all the insult-
ing jests and tales that you know. I got used to them.”
“Well,” said Karsen, suddenly feeling like an idiot for having brought any of
this up. “Be that as it may, it’s proba-
bly best if I don’t repeat them. I’d feel guilty about them, even if you don’t
hold me accountable.”
“All right,” Jepp said cheerfully. She turned around and s t a r t e d t o s
k i p a w a y... a p p a r e n t l y , j u s t because she could.
But she was brought up short when Karsen called after her, “Do you know if
your people were ever prone to prophetic dreams?”
Karsen knew that he’d hit upon something even before she turned and looked at
him, a cornered beast sizing up her erstwhile prey and trying to decide
whether she could tilt the odds back in her favor.
Then she laughed once more, except this time it sounded artificial and forced.
“Is this about my dreaming about the
Ocular? Because we’ve discussed it, and it’s so... I m ean, it was just
coincidence... ”
“Was it?”
“Yes. It was.”
“Jepp, you can be honest with m—”
“Yes,” Jepp said with greater force, in a manner that warned Karsen not to
push the matter any further. “It was.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
319

He put up his hands in an “I give” manner. “All right,” he said. “It was just
coincidence.”
She nodded, seemingly content with the termination of the discussion, and then
she flopped to the ground, lying on her back and staring up at the stars once
more. She thumped the area next to her with an open hand, indicating that she
wanted Karsen to lie next to her. He did so, and was surprised—but not too
surprised—when she slid over so that her head was resting in the crook of his
arm. The press of her body against his did not go unnoticed. He felt a stir-
ring in the fur around his loins, and drew his legs together tightly to head
it off before she spotted it.
“They say they’re up there,” said Jepp.
“Who says who’s up where?”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You see how few humans there
are now. And there were once so many more. Well . . . the story goes that,
realizing the world couldn’t stand against the Third Wave, many of my people
simply left.”
“Left? In what?”
“Boats. Boats to the stars.”
Karsen snickered at that. “Boats to the stars? Jepp, I’m more than willing to
admit that your ancestors had a consid-
erable degree of wit and ingenuity, but . . . boats to the stars? Seriously?”
“Seriously,” she said, “and by the way, I thought you said you weren’t going
to laugh at humans.”

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“I’m sorry,” he told her sincerely. “I didn’t mean to. You just . . . it
caught me off- guard, that’s all. Boats, you say?”
“Boats. Some of my people even believe there’s one light in the sky for every
human who survived and is hidden up there, in the blackness, waiting... ”
“Waiting for what?”
“For the Twelve Races to destroy each other.”
He blinked. “Hunh. Interesting.”
“Interesting or inevitable?” asked Jepp.
She cuddled even closer to him. He was becoming in-
tensely aware of the warmth of her skin, the scent of her.
320
PETER DAVID

Remarkable how much difference time could make. Ini-
tially he had been put off by her human odor; now it was al-
luring. Perhaps his mother’s comments were preying upon his mind, but all he
could think of was taking her, plunging himself into her. And yet there was
something deeper within him, some instinct telling him that he must not. That
it would be a monumental mistake. He felt as if his brain was at war with
itself, torn between sheer, wanton lust, and caution that was based in some
sort of nameless fear.
Karsen had always trusted his instincts, but now he had two different sets of
instincts sending him two starkly different messages.
Unaware of Karsen’s internal war, Jepp continued oblivi-
ously, “I mean, honestly, Karsen, you must see it. All of you must see it. The
only time the Twelve Races were united was when they were driving my
ancestors into oblivion.
Once you all triumphed, the next thing anyone knew, you were back to trying to
kill yourselves. If it weren’t for the
Firedraques endeavoring to impose some sort of rule of law upon you all, the
lot of you would likely be dead by now.
And even the Firedraque laws and treaties aren’t sufficient.
They’re being violated all the time. I can’t understand it.”
“Can’t you?” He realized his voice sounded strangled, and he coughed loudly to
clear his throat. “My understanding is that we could have learned a few things
from your ancestors when it came to war. I’m told they were bellicose,
fierce, and unreasoning. That they destroyed anything they didn’t under-
stand, and since more often than not they didn’t understand each other, they
would have done themselves in had we not shown up to expedite it.”
“Well, that just sounds silly.”
“Silly?”
“Of course. I mean... l ook at me, Karsen. Do I look fierce and unreasoning
to you?”
He tried to look anywhere but into those eyes of hers that threatened to
consume him. “Uh... no. Not . . .” His throat was closing up again and he
forced it open. “Not . . . at all, no.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
321

“There you are, then.”
She adjusted her position and laid her head upon his chest.
“Do you mind?”
“ N - N o... ”
Jepp sighed contentedly, and ran her fingers across the thick mat of hair on
his chest. “To think I was so terrified when I first saw you. I wanted to run
screaming, I . . .” She stopped moving her hand, letting it rest on his belly.
He thought he was going to explode. “I don’t know. Maybe there’s something in
what you say. I was scared of you be-

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cause I didn’t know you. I can see how fear of something can turn into hatred
of it.”
“Anything is possible.”
She lifted her head slightly and looked up at him. “Do you think my people
returning is possible? That instead of remaining hidden, they could come back,
and I wouldn’t be s o... a l one?”
“I suppose. After all, I just said ‘anything is possible.’ That certainly
falls into the category of ‘anything.’ But . . .”
“But what?”
“But . . . you’re not alone, Jepp. Not as long as I’m here.”
She sighed contentedly. “I was so hoping you’d say that.”
She continued to lie there for a time, staring up at the stars. She said
nothing and Karsen, who wasn’t much for filling up empty air with pointless
discussion, said nothing as well.
He’d never quite understood the depth of Jepp’s loneli-
ness before this moment. In all his discussions with her, she’d always seemed
so eager to please that, somehow, she’d never given him the impression that
there was much more to her than that. Unaccountably, he started wishing that
there was something he could do about her predicament. Some way to find other
humans for her to interact with.
And then, even as the idea crossed his mind, he decided he hated it. What was
he going to do? Hook her up with another human male? What a terrific notion.
She could then fall in love with him and not feel anything for Karsen a n y m
o r e...
322
PETER DAVID

What the hell am I thinking?
Karsen wondered. He wasn’t sure what he felt for her. He wasn’t sure what, if
anything, she felt for him. And there weren’t other humans around of
Karsen’s acquaintance anyway, so why in the world was he going off on this
tangent? It was . . .
He heard a gentle snoring in his ear. He angled his head around just enough to
see that Jepp was sound asleep, her head on his shoulder.
Karsen considered the idea of trying to slide out from un-
der her, pick her up, and carry her delicately back to camp.
Finally he decided against it. He didn’t want to chance wak-
ing her up. She was sleeping so peacefully, and considering how fitful her
slumber had been since they first met, why risk spoiling it? Besides, he kind
of liked just having her all to himself, even for a brief time. It felt as if
the rest of the world had gone far, far away, and it was just Karsen and
Jepp and a world that was empty of threat and war and any-
thing that could keep them apart.
He gazed upon the stars and thought about humans hid-
den among them.
“Best stay in hiding,” he murmured. “There’s nothing for you here.”
iii.
She has never seen a Trull before. Yet she sees one now no, —
more than one, many of them and they are shambling to-
—
ward her, reaching out with their huge, meaty hands, grasp-
ing at her.
She sprints up, out from a tunnel, and starts to run across a broad plain. But
suddenly those same hands burst up through the ground, grabbing her legs,
pulling her down.
She claws at the ground around her, trying to find purchase, some means of
halting her descent. But she is unable to, and she screams but cannot make
herself heard because her mouth is filled with dirt.
She falls into a tunnel once more, lit with glowing hotstars, DARKNESS OF THE

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LIGHT
323

except they are diminishing in strength. She is holding some-
thing. It is the globe. The orb. The Orb of the Trinity. Trull hands are
grasping all around her, and suddenly they are transformed and they are Piri
hands, they’re trying to take it away from her. She shoves at them, trying to
get away, and then looks down at the Orb and screams because it is now an eye,
which she seems to remember from another incident, and the eye is that of an
Ocular, staring at her un-
blinkingly and accusatorily. She wants to throw it away, but she is
transfixed. The Piri are no longer clutching at her.
Instead they are running, trying to get away, and in the dark center of the
eye she sees an explosion of light that is widen-
ing, moving beyond the eye, filling the tunnel all around h e r...
Jepp woke up screaming. The scream was cut off a split second after it had
started, so quickly that the sound of it would never have carried beyond a
couple of feet.
She didn’t even register where she was at first. Instead she was carry ing
over with her her dream imagery, and in her wild- eyed fear, she thought
she was being grabbed by a
Piri or a Trull. So it was that she fought wildly in Karsen’s grasp without
realizing who it was she was battling. Karsen, for his part, held on as
tightly as he could. They were both seated, so he was wrapping his legs
around her and keeping his hand firmly over her mouth. He certainly didn’t
need her shrieking to be heard by the others and force them to come running.
Karsen doubted they would appreciate hav-
ing their sleep interrupted in the middle of the night by a howling Mort.
Then she clamped her teeth down into the fleshy part of his hand and Karsen
almost let out a yell that would easily have been as loud as hers. Fortunately
he resisted at the last moment and bit his lower lip instead. This transformed
his pain- filled shout into an inaudible whimper.
“Jepp!”
he whispered fiercely, fighting to keep his voice down. “Wake up!” He shook
her, more violently than he would have liked, but it was understandable
considering the circumstances.
“Jepp, wake up!”
324
PETER DAVID

She gasped, clutching at him, and her eyes locked upon him, looking like she
couldn’t believe he was there.
“Not again... I can’t take them again... m a k e t h e m s t o p... t
h e y h a v e t o s t o p... ”
“Jepp, what is—?”
She clutched at his arm and whispered, “They come true.
When I have them, they come true. I lied. Oh, gods, make them stop coming, you
have to make them stop coming... ”
“I don’t know how! I
can’t
—!”
“You can,” and her lips were against his, desperate and longing and
insistent, and she would not be turned away.
The pain he had been in before was forgotten, overwhelmed by the sensations
that were flooding through him now. “You can,” she said again, moving down
and kissing his throat. “I
never had them with the Greatness. He made them stop. You can make them stop.”
“ Y o u m e a n... ”

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She fumbled at the clasps of her garments and they fell away as she clambered
atop Karsen.
“Oh gods,” he moaned as her breasts brushed against his lips. He had all
manner of things he was going to say to her to make her stop, and he was going
to push her away and tell her that this was just wrong, that he’d be taking
advan-
tage of her fear and desperation, and certainly there were other ways to
handle this.
But somehow he managed not to articulate any of those thoughts. Instead the
heat of her washed over him, and the scent of her was everywhere. And the next
thing he knew he was in her, and more than just physically. He felt as if he
were inside her mind, her heart, her soul as well.
He called out her name as she did his, looking down at him and smiling as her
hips and buttocks moved hard against him. Then her head tilted back, her
gasping building in intensity and depth, and if Karsen had felt earlier that
the world consisted of just him and Jepp, that was as nothing compared to the
same sensation now, only more so. There were no other living creatures, there
was no one else on the planet, no one else in the universe. Just Karsen
Foux and
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325

Jepp, and they were the entirety of the universe, their souls encompassing
the whole of infinity.
“I am yours,” Jepp moaned, “and you are mine, we are b o n d e d... ”
“Oh gods, yes, we are,” cried out Karsen, and then the heat was simply too
much for him, he could hold it back no longer, and ceased trying. She cried
out his name once more, her legs rhythmically clamping around his upper
thighs, and then she fell forward, collapsing upon him, wrung- out as a
rag.
“We are bonded,” she said again, and then began to sob very softly. “Thank
you, thank you... ”
And this time her words penetrated the haze of plea sure that had descended
upon him and enfolded him like a gauze.
“What . . . do you mean... b y t h a t...? ” h e a s k e d .
“ B y... what?” she managed to say.
“By our being ‘bonded.’ What does that mean?”
She raised her head slightly, looked down at him, and with a small bit of
spittle dangling from one corner of her mouth, said, “I don’t know what you’re
talking about.” And with that, to Karsen’s bewilderment, she sprawled upon him
and fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
THE DEPTHS
Undulating his great flippers, Gorkon propelled himself to the Depths. All
around him was inky blackness, and yet his eyes enabled him to see in the
murky surroundings. But even as he moved and saw with efficiency, there was
noth-
ing to be done about the pounding of his heart frantically against his chest.
The Depths.
None of his people had ever gone to that section of the waters that was called
the Depths. The reason for it was
326
PETER DAVID

simple: The Merk had forbidden them to do so. Really, that was all it took for
the Markene to obey.
Gorkon’s concern, however, wasn’t rooted simply in the fact that the Merk had
declared it off- limits. He was not ex-
actly the greatest proponent of what the Merk had to say about anything, and

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had come to regard every Merk pro-
nouncement with the utmost suspicion... especially re-
cently.
No, the problem was that the Depths had been off- limits for so long that
the Markene had spun in their own, addled heads all manner of tales about the
Depths and attached them to that forbidden zone to explain why it was off-
limits.
So although the actions he was taking had been suggested to him by none other
than Ruark Sydonis, the ruler of the
Merk, nevertheless there was a certain amount of trepida-
tion that was hardwired into him. There was nothing quite as daunting as the
imagination of someone who thrust him-
self into somewhere that he’d been told, since infancy, that he was not
supposed to go. Throughout his descent, he imagined great, monstrous
creatures lurking in the shadowy depths surrounding him. Twice he actually
barked in fright when something brushed against his leathery skin, only to
feel the total fool upon discovering that it was just some passing fish that
was far more afraid of him than he was of it . . . at least in theory. Then
again, there was every chance that he actually was outstripping the fish when
it came to stinking fear.
He chided himself even as apprehension worked its way into his bones.
You wish to help your people. You even aspire t o... w h a t ? L e a d t
hem? Yet you’re so terrified of simple damned water that you can barely see
straight. How can you get them to believe in you, to trust you, when you don’t
even trust yourself?
He wondered if real leaders ever felt fear. It seemed un-
likely. How could anyone grow to a position of leadership if they ever doubted
themselves?
Then again, not all leaders were the same, were they?
Ruark was a leader. Yet he chose to mask his abilities, allow
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
327

his wife to take the forefront, while manipulating her with-
out her even knowing it. Was that how leaders were supposed to act? Again,
it seemed unlikely. Perhaps some leaders had an undercurrent of naked fear
within them and they simply managed to overcome it. Gorkon thought he could be
that kind of leader, presuming the opportunity ever presented itself.
He decided he was getting ahead of himself. At the mo-
ment, the Markene effectively had no leader. Their perpet-
ual haze allowed little room for such things. They attended the words of Orin
Arn Oran because he held control over their precious Klaa, but that didn’t
make him a leader. In-
stead he was just a biological extortionist. Leaders had to display
principles, leaders had to concern themselves with the public good, leaders...
The blackness shifted.
Gorkon froze where he was, convinced that there in the depths, something large
had moved. The murkiness that surrounded him was a challenge for even his
eyes. He tried to remain absolutely still, but that wasn’t possible. If he
didn’t move, he’d start to drift. Holding his position required move-
ment of his legs or arms. Of the two options open to him, he decided on
drifting, since he could always be mistaken for just some large piece of
flotsam.
For long minutes, he did nothing. Since he’d been swim-
ming downward, he’d halted in an upside- down position.
Now, since he was making no effort to continue, he was slowly starting to turn
right side up. The change in perspec-
tive didn’t make any difference in his ability to make out anything. In all
that time, nothing stirred.

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I can’t do this, I can’t do this, he told himself, and he was about to
give up and head to the surface when he suddenly spotted what he’d been
looking for.
There, not far below him, were the remains of what ap-
peared to be some sort of seagoing vessel. Obviously it had belonged to the
Morts. It was said that Mort vessels were far more varied and impressive
than anything the Sirene had to offer, but Gorkon found that a dubious boast.
328
PETER DAVID

With one final, cautious glance around, he twisted around and dove toward the
bottom. He wasn’t entirely certain he’d be able to find what he was looking
for, but Ruark’s de-
scription had been detailed, so ideally he could locate it.
Finally he got to the bottom and there studied the wreck-
age. At first he had no idea what could have caused the boat to wind up at the
bottom of the ocean, but soon he discov-
ered a sizable tear toward the back. He was reasonably sure it wasn’t
something that had occurred after the ship had sunk. This wasn’t the result of
its lying submerged for so long. Something had ripped a hole in the boat.
Perhaps it had hit some sort of obstruction, like the top of an undersea
mountain. Or an explosive device perhaps. Humans were alleged to have been
quite skilled at creating suchlike.
No. No, that’s not it, Gorkon realized as he studied the destruction more
closely. There were metal plates in the hull, and there was clearly no
explosion or accidental strik-
ing of a solid object involved. Something had ripped the plates apart, had
literally torn a hole in the ship through brute force.
Had it been the Markene? His was certainly a strong race, and one or perhaps a
couple of them could easily inflict this amount of damage. But the timing
didn’t seem right.
Gorkon was hardly a scientist, but he had at least some vague idea, based upon
the deterioration, of just how long the wrecked vessel had been down there. If
his guess was cor-
rect, this damage had occurred long before the arrival of the
Third Wave and, to the best of his knowledge, any Markene who might have
arrived on the Damned World during the
Second Wave were long dead.
Which meant that something else was involved.
But even if he was right . . . even if something had made it happen... t h a
t had surely been so long ago that it no longer mattered because what ever
caused it had to be dead, right?
Right?
He tried to respond “Right!” to himself, but his brain didn’t seem interested
in accepting that as an answer. With
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
329

an escalating sense of dread, Gorkon began to work his way along the hull of
the sunken ship, and he mentally began to count down. If he reached “one”
before having found what he was looking for, he was going to give up. He told
himself it wasn’t exactly giving up, though. It was simply the gods expressing
their will that they didn’t want him to find it, and who was he to argue with
the gods?
As it turned out, no arguments were necessary. As his per-
sonal countdown passed “seven,” he suddenly spotted the round shapes of what
Ruark had sent him to find. He quickly made his way over there, drawing in
close to see the large, round canisters piled up at one end of the ship. There

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were quite a few of them. Ruark had told him he would only need two, which
was a relief to Gorkon because he didn’t think he could conceivably carry
any more.
He studied the canisters for a moment, looking at the words of Mort writing
upon them. Naturally he could not read them, but some of the shapes were
recognizable. There was a circle, and next to it was a single straight,
vertical line of the same height, and next to that was another vertical line
with a smaller, horizontal line at its base. Unless, of course, the canister
was upside down, in which case it was all back-
ward. But forward, backward, it made no difference to
Gorkon. He was just going to do what he needed to do, and hope that he didn’t
get himself into even further trouble in t h e p r o c e s s...
Suddenly the darkness shifted once more, but there was more this time. There
was a distinct movement, as if some-
thing of vast size and weight was displacing massive amounts of water. It was
coming from above, large waves of pressure shoving down upon him. Nor was it
just move-
ment. There was some sort of soft, steady noise, like a hum-
ming.
Almost terrified to do so, Gorkon forced himself to look up. And when he did,
he froze once more. This time, how-
ever, there was nothing voluntary about it. At that moment if
Gorkon had wanted, with all his heart, to move so much as a fraction of an
inch, he would not have been able to do so.
330
PETER DAVID

It was massive. Massive beyond belief. Massive beyond imagination. It cruised
past above him, an endless shadow, and gods knew it was not waels because
Gorkon knew what a wael was, he’d even seen waels from time to time. They were
impressive enough beasts and could grow to consider-
able lengths.
B u t t h i s... t h i s w a s l i k e n o t h i n g e l se. This was
unsur-
passed.
He couldn’t make out any details. It was just so huge that there was room
for nothing else in the field of his vision. In looking up, all he saw was
blackness that was moving.
It passed with leisurely confidence as Gorkon hid in the shadows. As it
slowed, Gorkon trembled. He felt something crawling ever so gently around in
his mind. It was like ten-
tacles that had no substance, and yet did, probing about, and for an instant
there was some sort of connection that he couldn’t begin to understand.
Was it trying to communicate with him? Or merely deter-
mine if he was there so that it could eat him? With great de-
termination, Gorkon shut down his mind, shunning the contact.
Then, like morning mist, it evaporated, leaving no trace, and the great
creature fell back into its leisurely forward movement. And finally, finally,
it was gone.
Still Gorkon didn’t budge.
He stayed rooted in his place for some time. Then he sud-
denly grabbed up two of the canisters and, with one under each arm, he leaped
toward the surface.
He swam as fast as his legs would take him. He felt slow and leaden while
clutching the metal barrels. Funny how it required an attempt at high speed to
make one feel slow.
The entire swim upward, he was bracing himself, con-
vinced that sooner or later that creature was going to come cruising in out of
nowhere and devour him in one bite. Cer-

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tainly based on the creature’s size, there was no reason to think he
couldn’t do it.
But there was no attack from the water, unless one counted a jellyfish that
stung him as he swam past. (He
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
331

crushed the jellyfish with one hand. The other jellyfish in the area, seeing
the level of the retaliation, promptly de-
cided it was a good chance to be elsewhere.)
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, even though there was no one around. He was
speaking instead to his people, or at least the spirit of his people. “I’m
sorry... t h a t I m u s t d o t h i s .
Hopefully they will forgive me... a n d y o u w ill as well.”
He ascended slowly, as Ruark Sydonis had warned him to do. Considering his
biology, there was every chance that
Gorkon would suffer no ill effects from a rapid rise from the depths.
Considering his ner vous ness over a possible return of the giant what
ever- it- was that had apparently overlooked him earlier, it was all he
could do to restrain himself, since his sense of self- preservation was
urging him to hurry the hell up. But with impressive control he managed to
maintain a slow and steady upward course until finally he broke the sur-
face of the water. Although he was just as comfortable breathing water, simple
air had never tasted quite as delicious to him as it did right now.
The moon hung high above him in the night sky as he paddled slowly toward the
Resting Point. There he waited, hanging just below the surface. He was
ravenous from all his exertion. What he really would have liked to do was dump
the canisters on the Resting Point and head out to the fishing grounds so that
he could hunt himself up some sustenance.
But he had promised Ruark Sydonis that he would come straight there and wait
for him once he returned. Sydonis had warned him to wait until night so that
he could operate under the shroud of darkness. Gorkon didn’t understand the
neces-
sity of it. “Who will be watching me? Who will care?” he had inquired. Ruark
had merely replied darkly, “You never know.”
He wondered how Ruark Sydonis would know he was there, but decided he
shouldn’t worry about it. If Ruark was anything, it was resourceful.
It was not all that long before his confidence in Ruark
Sydonis was validated. He heard a gentle lapping of water, 332
PETER DAVID

and there, approaching in slow but steady fashion, was Ru-
ark. He was steering his one- man boat, but Gorkon could see from where he
was that there was some sort of towing hookup on the back. Clearly Ruark had
shown up prepared for Gorkon’s little mission to be a success.
“Do you have them?” he called softly to Gorkon as he drew nearer, and then
seemed to correct his own thinking.
“Why ask? Of course you have them. If you did not have them, you would not
have yet returned, would you.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” Gorkon agreed. “But I still do not know what is in these
containers.”
“Something that will solve your problems. The humans called it,” and he
paused, wanting to get the word correct.
“Url.”
“Url.” Gorkon studied the canisters dubiously. “What did the url do?”
“Ah. Funny you should ask.” He reached around behind his seat and drew out a
small box. “I brought this from the
Venets museum. I believe you’ll find it educational.”

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He opened the lid and Gorkon eased over through the wa-
ter to get a better look. When he did, he gasped, although it was as much in
lack of comprehension as it was in horror.
There was some sort of small aquatic animal within, but it was long dead. Its
remains had been treated in some man-
ner so that it maintained the shape and look from back when it was alive. But
there was still something horribly wrong with it. There were a few tufts of
its fur still visible to indicate that it had once been gray, but it was
covered with what appeared to be some sort of thick, black coating.
Gorkon extended a webbed finger tentatively and looked ner vous ly at Ruark.
“You can touch it,” Ruark assured him. “It can’t hurt y o u... a n y m o r
e . ”
He did so and found that the blackness was hard and smooth to the touch. “This
is... u r l ? ”
“Yes,” said Ruark.
“Was this url responsible for the creature’s death?”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
333

“I believe so.” Ruark examined the creature sadly, shak-
ing his head and sighing heavily. “To think that the Morts would have done
this to a helpless creature, one that was sharing their world. Mark my words,
Gorkon, we took his world away from them not one moment too soon.”
“You’re absolutely right. Did they create this url just to kill other living
beings?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Ruark admitted “It may have had other uses.”
Gorkon thought about it a moment, and then decided, “It doesn’t matter. Even
if it had a use that was beneficial, that pales in comparison to the
destruction of which it was capa-
ble. I take it that animal you’re holding was not the only one to suffer from
url?”
“Definitely not,” said Ruark. “The museum was left over from the Morts, and
this pathetic thing was part of an entire display. It showed dozens, perhaps
hundreds of them, in pictures, washed up on a shore.”
“They were boasting about their conquest of these ani-
mals?” Gorkon was horrified.
“Apparently so.”
“Monsters,” Gorkon said fiercely.
“They come in all shapes and sizes,” Ruark said, commis-
erating with the young Markene. “Help me load this on.”
He did so, making sure that the device Ruark had at-
tached to his boat was secured to the canisters. There were flotation
devices attached as well so that the canisters re-
mained buoyant rather than threatening to break loose and sink back to the
bottom of the ocean. Considering that prompted Gorkon to inquire about
something that was puz-
zling him.
“How did you know?” he asked as he secured the last fas-
tenings.
“Hmm? Know what?” asked Ruark.
“How did you know that the url was down there at all? It was below depths that
a Merk could survive, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was.”
“So you couldn’t have seen it yourself.”
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“No,” Ruark agreed. “I could not have.”

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“Then how?”
Ruark smiled. It seemed a benign smile, but Gorkon couldn’t be sure how much
of a shark was hiding behind it.
“I have friends.”
“Friends? What kind of friends?”
“Friends,” Ruark said, “in low places.”
Gorkon had no idea what Ruark as talking about, and then the realization hit
him. “That . . . thing...? T h a t h u g e... t h a t...? ”
Slowly Ruark nodded approvingly. “Not much slips past you, does it, Gorkon.”
And with that he paddled off into the night, leaving a thoughtful and utterly
confused Gorkon in his wake.
SUBTERROR
i.
“You sent for me, Mistress?”
Sunara Redeye rose lazily from her bed, not fully regis-
tering whose voice was addressing her. When she saw who it was, she came to
instant wakefulness and clapped her hands together in delight—not exactly
the most dignified reaction, she supposed, but an honest one.
“Yes, my dear! Yes, yes.” She crossed the room to Mer-
rih, her feet barely touching the floor as she went. Extend-
ing her hands, she cooed, “Come, let me look at you! My, aren’t you looking
exceptional.”
And she was. Merrih had developed a lovely pallor, and her single eye was
receding slightly into her head where it hadn’t before. She was far thinner
than when she’d first ar-
rived, but did not look at all sickly. In fact, she appeared healthier, moving
with a newfound confidence and grace that
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
335

belied her giant form. “I knew it. I knew from the moment you came here that
you were going to be special.”
“Special, Mistress?” Merrih asked. She didn’t appear to have any idea what
Sunara was referring to.
“When we’ve captured Ocular before... d r ank from them . . . we never did
so with intent to kill them. You must understand that. Do you believe me,
Merrih?”
“Of course, Mistress.”
Sunara ran her fingers through Merrih’s tangle of hair.
Merrih gasped in pain as Sunara’s fingers became tangled in it. “We can’t
have this,” Sunara said disapprovingly. “It was so pretty when you came down
here. We must make you perfect.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
Moments later, Merrih was seated as Sunara used a basin to wash Merrih’s hair
clean and then applied oils to keep it smooth. As she did so she continued to
speak. “Anyway...
we never intended to kill them. What would be the point of that? To keep an
Ocular alive means that we can continue to feed. And isn’t that desirable?”
“Of course it is, Mistress,” said Merrih. Her voice sounded very distant, even
dazed, in a singsong manner that was not at all comparable to the strength and
firmness in her tone when she had first arrived.
“Furthermore, just as we feed from a host, the host—if he or she remains
alive long enough—learns to feed from us. Ours is not a parasitic
relationship, as the upper world would have all believe. We are symbiotic. We
bring as much as we take. Is that not so?”
“Yes, Mistress.”
“You have been feeding, yes?”
“Yes, Mistress.” Merrih absently ran her tongue along the underside of her
teeth. “It has been... r e v e l a t o r y . ”

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“Of course it has,” said Sunara confidently, combing through the last tangles
in Merrih’s hair. “Would that oth-
ers in your race could see that. But,” she said with a heavy sigh, “that has
not been the case. More often than not, they s i m p l y... oh, what’s the
best way to put it ...? ”
336
PETER DAVID

“Die?”
“Well, yes, that, but I think ‘gave up’ is the preferable view,” Sunara told
her. “Their spirits were not strong enough for them to open their minds to
new choices, new lifestyles.
But you have a strong spirit, Merrih. The strongest I’ve ever encountered from
an outsider.”
“Thank you, Mistress. You are very beautiful.”
“Yes, I know. And you are becoming so, especially as you appreciate the Piri
philosophy of sharing all things: spirit, body, blood. We have no secrets from
each other, for all that any of us has is had by all of us. True?”
“True, Mistress.”
Satisfied that she’d untangled Merrih’s hair, Sunara be-
gan to braid it with confident expertise. “You have grown close to Clarinda,
have you not?”
“Yes, Mistress. Very close.”
“She tells you secrets?”
Merrih hesitated. “I . . . suppose.”
“I would like you,” she said, “to tell me those secrets.
For, as I just said, no Piri have secrets from each other.”
“I should tell you those things which she tells me in con-
fidence?”
“Of course. After all, not only am I Mistress, I am also her mother.”
Merrih fell silent.
“ M e r r i h...? ” she prodded.
“I . . . do not know, Mistress.”
“Do not know what?” Her deft fingers continued to braid
Merrih’s hair. “What is there not to know?”
“I just . . . I value Clarinda’s friendship, Mistress, and I
do not know how she would react if I were to relate to you that which she
tells me.”
“Oh,” Sunara scoffed, “that is no great problem. Simply do not tell her that
you’ve told me. Why upset her?”
“But if that’s the case, Mistress, then I would be keeping secrets from her,
and your entire reason for my telling you is that secrets should not be kept.
How would I justify one with the other?”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
337

That caused Sunara’s hands to stop their motion.
“Mistress? Did I . . . offend you?”
“No,” laughed Sunara. “Not at all. That would be a con-
tradiction, wouldn’t it? My oh my, yes, it appears you have me there.”
“I did not mean to upset you, Mistress.”
“I assure you, you have not. That’s what I value about you, Merrih. Because
you think, you make me think.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Thinking is always good.” She resumed the braiding, working her way toward
the bottom of Merrih’s long hair.
“You have to understand, Merrih, I don’t seek to know this merely out of some
sense of voyeurism. The truth is, I’m concerned about Clarinda.”

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“Concerned, Mistress?”
“Yes,” she said, and although Merrih could not see it, her mouth was drawn in
a taut, grim manner, even as her voice continued light and casual. “She is not
around for lengthy periods of time. She sneaks away. Some of my people have
tried to trail her, but she is far too clever, too elusive. That is indeed my
daughter: If she does not desire to be followed, one would have an easier time
plucking a shadow off a cave wall. I do not know what she is getting herself
into, Merrih, and it worries me. You see that, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course I do, Mistress. If I were blind, I could see it.”
“Well, then, we’re at something of an impasse, aren’t we?” She said it with
the air of someone who carried upon her all the world’s strife and a bleak
sense that she was help-
less to resolve any of it. “You wish to protect any confi-
dences she might bestow upon you... w h i l e , a t t h e s a m e time,
you are bound to serve my interests since I am your
Mistress. Can you think of any way around this dilemma?”
Merrih frowned, considering the situation. Sunara fin-
ished braiding her hair and began to tie small bits of sparkling twine into
it, just to add a bit of festivity to it.
“I suppose... ” she began finally.
338
PETER DAVID

“Yes?”
“I suppose I could watch for certain things and tell you about those. It’s
only the things that Clarinda actually says that fall under the arena of
confidences. But if I happen to notice something and she is unaware of it . .
. why, then, I
suppose I wouldn’t be betraying any—”
“Yes! Excellent,” said Sunara, who actually did not con-
sider it excellent at all, but was willing to take what she could to start
out. “That would be most helpful. And I can count on you, Merrih?”
Merrih turned and looked over her shoulder at Sunara.
“For anything, Mistress.”
“I shall reward you, you know. For any information you can provide me that
will help keep my daughter safe.”
“I have no need of reward, Mistress. Being with you, helping the Piri . . .
these are reward enough.”
“That may be. But still . . .”
And as Merrih watched, Sunara Redeye extended her arm and drew a long
fingernail across her outstretched wrist. A thin line of blood welled up, and
she extended it to-
ward Merrih. Merrih looked amazed. “Are you... s e r i o u s , Mistress?”
“Very much so.”
“I . . . the honor . . . I’m . . .”
“Shhhh,” Sunara softly whispered to her as if settling an infant to sleep. “Do
not question. Don’t offer thanks.
Merely take that which is offered to you, freely and of your own will.”
Merrih licked her lips at the glistening blood, and then she seized upon the
arm. At first she licked it lightly, to get the taste of it. Sunara smiled and
ran a hand along Merrih’s long braid. And then, with gusto, she began to drink
deeply and heartily. Sunara tilted her head back, basking in the sensation,
glowing with joy, the sucking sounds that Mer-
rih made easing her into a blissful state.
Sunara slid to the floor, keeping her arm upraised so that
Merrih could continue to drink it. Her face was near Merrih’s
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
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bare thigh, and she sank her teeth into it. Merrih gasped at the sudden pain,
but that didn’t shake her from Sunara’s arm, while Sunara proceeded to taste
the nectar of Merrih’s blood, drawing it from her leg.
“Exquisite,” moaned Sunara between bites.
ii.
When it was done, and Sunara lay upon her bed in a blissful stupor, Merrih
walked out of the chamber of the Mistress, leaned against a wall with her mind
whirling, tried to com-
prehend what had just happened and—once she did—ran and ran until she
could find some private place to cough up
Sunara’s blood. It tasted bitter and metallic, and Merrih—
mind and body torn—sank to her knees and sobbed.
Her heart pounded furiously, and she thought of Clarinda.
She thought of the things that she had not said to Sunara. She thought of
Clarinda’s per sis tent desperation and fear at turn-
ing into her mother. When they spoke of the truth between them, it was in
hushed whispers and with many fears that they would be overheard and observed.
And she thought of the fact that, if Clarinda became suf-
ficiently frightened over the prospect of being mutilated...
then Merrih might be able to convince her to do what needed to be done...
. . . to kill Sunara Redeye and, with any luck, escape in the confusion.
Nurse your hatred. Don’t forget your hatred. Your hatred, and Clarinda’s fear,
will be your salvation.
She kept thinking that as she sensed the tendrils of
Sunara’s will insinuating itself into her thoughts, and she prayed to the
gods that had abandoned her that—if she did manage to escape—there was
something of her left that was recognizable.
340
PETER DAVID

THE UNDERGROUND
i.
The Bottom Feeders stood before the looming cave en-
trance, studying it with trepidation. Zerena looked around at her clan, saw
the looks of concern on their respective faces, and then said, “All right.
We’ve seen it. We’re here. Now who’s for getting the hell out of here
before it’s too late?”
The jumpcar was parked not far away, hidden in the shad-
ows and rocky outcroppings at the base of a nearby hill.
In preparing for what she still considered to be a suicidal fool’s errand,
Zerena had strapped a sword around her hip.
Karsen had the war hammer attached to his back, and
Mingo was softly tapping into his open palm an impressive club with spikes
rimming the top. A short distance away, once again seemingly in a world of his
own, Rafe Kestor was whipping his sword through the air and making loud noises
of “Ha!” and “Have at you!”
Only two remained unarmed. One was Jepp, who was watching the energetic Kestor
with a mixture of amusement and awe. The other, of course, was Gant, who at
that mo-
ment was nothing save a percolating pile of goo upon the floor. Jepp, however,
was holding a glowstick. She was studying the green glowing device with great
curiosity, ap-
parently never having seen one before.
“Well?” demanded Zerena when no one responded im-
mediately. “There’s still time to turn back.”
“And do what?” asked Karsen. “Spend the next twenty, thirty sun cycles
watching our backs for fear that the Ocular will be after us?”
“At least we’ll have twenty, thirty cycles,” Zerena said.

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“Whereas if we embark on this insanity, the odds are very much against that.”

“We said we would undertake this endeavor,” said
Mingo. “I do not see how we can turn away from it now.”
“It’s easily done,” Zerena told him. “We place one foot in front of the
other—”
Karsen’s impatience was very noticeable. “Mother,” he said, trying to overcome
the frustration he clearly had in dealing with her. “We’re going with or
without you.”
“Hah!” she snorted. “Without me, you wouldn’t last,”
and she snapped her fingers in the air once, “that long.”
“That is not true!” Jepp protested before he could man-
age to get a word out. “He would last beyond... t h a t , ” a n d she
snapped her finger in response to a bemused Zerena.
“Why, he might even last two of these,” and she snapped her fingers twice
more.
“Thank you for the vote of confidence, Jepp,” Karsen said, gently pulling her
back. “All right, so... J epp and I
are going in. You others with us?”
There were mute nods from all concerned, and Zerena let out an annoyed sigh,
the air of someone who knew beyond question that she was right, but had to
suffer the folly of oth-
ers. “So be it,” she said in exasperation. “So... Gant. You led us here.
You said you knew the ins and outs of the Trull
Underground.”
“Yes” was all Gant said in his heavy, warbling voice.
“Then lead the way.”
“Do we have any sort of plan?” asked Mingo. His club was sounding a bit louder
as he continued to thwap it against his palm.
Gant’s body morphed upward into as close to a standard bipedal form as it was
capable of achieving. “We must . . .
look around,” he said.
“That’s ?” said Karsen. “That’s the cunning plan?”
it
“ I k n o w... m y w a y a r o u n d , ” Gant said in his labored w a y .
“ T h i s e n t r a n c e... little used. Stick to... f o r g o t t e n
tunnels... g e t c l ose in... t hen we steal . . . the Orb... ”
“Perhaps we should just send Gant in, if he’s so power-
fully certain that this is going to work,” Zerena said.
But Karsen shook his head. “If he doesn’t come back, 342
PETER DAVID

how long do we wait? And when we’ve waited long enough, what then? We go in
after him, with no clue where he is and no idea ourselves how to get around in
there? Or we aban-
don him? Neither option seems a particularly good one, does it.”
“Karsen’s right,” agreed Mingo. “Our best chance is to stay together as a
group.”
“Excellent idea. That way we can all die together and save time,” said Zerena.
She didn’t even realize that Jepp was standing practically at her shoulder
until the human said, very softly but with conviction, “We’re not going to
die.”
“You know that for a fact, do you?”
“Mother,” Karsen began to say, “Leave her b—”
Jepp put up a hand, quieting him. “It’s all right, Karsen. I
can answer her. Yes, Zerena, I know that for a fact. I know we’ll succeed.”
There was something in Jepp’s tone, her conviction and certainty, that piqued
Zerena’s curiosity. “How do you?”

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“Because... I k n o w . ”
Zerena couldn’t hide her disappointment. “That’s it?
That’s all? You know because you know? That’s ridiculous!”
“Why? It’s called ‘faith.’ You swear to gods, yet you haven’t seen them. Isn’t
that faith?”
“Why do you assume we haven’t seen them?” Zerena was astonished. “Of course
we’ve seen them. Back in the
Elserealms, they were seen all the time... a t l e a s t , s o I ’ m
told.”
Rafe Kestor whipped his sword through the air, nearly decapitating Karsen, who
barely dodged. “Enemies to the right and left of us!” he cried out. “And I,
armed with noth-
ing but a length of rope and three pieces of ripe fruit!”
“Well said, Rafe,” Mingo deadpanned.
“Can we... g o n o w?” asked Gant, who had not moved away from the entrance
during the entire discussion.
“Yes, we can,” Karsen said, looking challengingly at his mother. “In the name
of honor . . . in the name of aspiring to something greater than ourselves . .
. let’s go.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
343

With that, Gant oozed down into the entrance. Karsen promptly followed him
with Jepp directly behind him.
Mingo indicated to Rafe Kestor that he should precede him, obviously because
he didn’t want the addled Mandraque to be behind him and pose a threat.
Zerena rested her hand on the pommel of her sword and muttered, “The idiot
things we do to keep our children happy,” and descended into darkness behind
them.
ii.
Karsen felt as if he were being buried alive.
He had never been underground before. Never had any reason to. He had no
dealings with Trulls, and thank the gods had never been captured by Piri. So
making his way through caves was a new experience for him, and he couldn’t
say that he was enjoying it. For all this big talk about aspiring to greatness
and acting in an honorable way, there was enough of his mother in him that
Karsen wanted to turn around and get the hell out of there.
Every time that thought crossed his mind, however, there would be Jepp,
smiling at him approvingly. Every time he looked at her, he remembered her and
her heat, and the soft-
ness of her and the smell of her, and he had to admit he would have been
amazed if human males had ever let their females do anything other than
gratify the males. Because if Jepp was any indicator, it was something that
human fe-
males were exceptionally gifted at.
So he tried his best not to feel as if the cave walls were weighing in on
him. Instead he focused all his attention on the form of Gant, who seemed to
be moving with a great deal of confidence. Then again, Karsen might just have
been reading something into Gant’s movement, because re-
ally, all Gant was doing was oozing.
Maybe he oozes confi-
dence, Karsen thought.
He had expected that it would be dank and drippy be-
neath the ground, but that did not appear to be the case. The
344
PETER DAVID

path they were following seemed to be angling down at a pretty fair rate of

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descent, and the air actually felt warm.
“Are we heading toward some sort of heat source?” Karsen asked.
“ T h e w o r l d... i s a heat source,” Gant replied.
The group was bathed in pale green from Jepp’s glow-
stick. But there was additional lighting as well, from lanterns that dotted
their trail. Karsen wondered if this was a natural cave that the Trulls had
developed, or if they’d carved it out themselves.
Suddenly Gant stopped, and the others did as well. The path forked in front of
them.
“In case anyone is about to say, ‘Let’s split up,’ you can just forget it,”
Zerena announced.
“This way,” said Gant, and he moved down the corridor on the left. Karsen
turned, and followed him, as did the others.
Several more times along the way they came upon split-
offs, and each time Gant chose the left path. If he was guessing, at least he
was doing it consistently.
There was no small talk among the Bottom Feeders.
Everyone seemed focused on their endeavor. Karsen lost track of how long
they’d been below. Subjectively it seemed a very long time, but he had a
feeling that it hadn’t been that long at all.
Then Gant stopped moving.
Karsen didn’t realize it immediately. Instead he almost stepped right into the
gelatinous Bottom Feeder’s mass, but pulled back his foot at the last moment.
“Gant? What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Not used... t o m o v i n g t h i s m uch,” Gant said in his war-
bling voice. “Need . . . to rest . . . a little.”
“What’s wrong?” Zerena called from behind.
“Gant. He needs to rest.”
“So we’ll rest,” Zerena said indifferently. “Whether we run headlong to our
dooms or take a break along the way, the result is all the same, isn’t it?”
Karsen wanted to lay into his mother for her incessant
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
345

defeatist talk, but restrained himself. Instead he said, “I’m going to scout a
little ways ahead.”
“I’ll come with you,” said Jepp.
“I’ll be fine on my own.”
“I’ll come with you,” she repeated.
He shrugged and headed off, Jepp trailing behind him.
As they made their way, Jepp slipped her hand into his and squeezed it
tightly. “You were wonderful the other night,” she said.
Karsen felt a tingling in his face as he flushed from em-
barrassment. “I . . . you were upset. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of
you that way. But if it rids you of the dreams t h a t t o r t u r e y o u
s o... ”
“It should,” said Jepp. “Of course... a n y t h i n g i s possi-
ble, I suppose. But even if it doesn’t for some reason... I
don’t see how providing comfort and warmth could possi-
bly be seen as ‘taking advantage.’” She frowned. “You’re not . . . sorry, I
hope. I mean, do you regret ...? ”
“Oh, no,” he said with certainty. “Not at all. It was... ”
“It was what?” She seemed eager to hear his feelings on it.
He stopped walking and turned to her, gently brushing a strand of hair away
from her face. “It was like... w h i l e I
was in you, you were in me. Like there wasn’t a beginning or an end to us.”
She smiled shyly. “That’s exactly how I felt, too. It was a good thing, wasn’t
it?”
“Yes. A very good thing. It—”

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That was when he heard and felt a distant rumbling. It seemed to be coming
from ahead of them. “What . . .
is that?” he wondered.
“A quake?” she asked ner vous ly.
Karsen shook his head. “No, no... I don’t think so.
Come on.” He started forward and she fell into step behind him.
The tunnel they were following curved around and then opened up a short
distance ahead. There, Karsen saw what appeared to be an intersection, but it
was very different from the split- offs they had encountered earlier.
346
PETER DAVID

First of all, this new tunnel cut directly across their path in perpendicular
fashion. And second, whereas the paths they had followed thus far had been
rough- hewn, Karsen could see that this new tunnel was absolutely, perfectly
smooth, all the way around.
Except for the floor. There were twin indentations on the floor, long lines,
perfectly parallel to each other, run-
ning the length of the tunnel in both directions as far as the eye could see.
Each of the indentations was about as wide as
Karsen’s hand. He couldn’t imagine what they were for.
He stepped forward into the intersection, studying the walls and floor. His
first impression had been correct. Not only was it smooth, but it was
precisely circular. “The Trulls took a lot of care with this one,” he said. “I
wonder why?”
Jepp was standing just beyond the threshold of the new tunnel, and she was
glancing around ner vous ly. “That rum-
bling hasn’t stopped.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
“I think it’s getting closer.”
Karsen was kneeling, running his hands over the tunnel floor. “I think you’re
right,” he said. “I just wish I could tell which direction it’s coming fr—”
“Karsen! Move!”
Reacting entirely on instinct thanks to Jepp’s outcry, Karsen vaulted toward
her, his powerful legs easily carry ing him the distance in under a second.
As it happened, that was practically all the time he had, for the instant he
was clear of the tunnel, something large and black blasted past them, the
rumbling so loud as to be almost deafening. Karsen had barely blinked and the
thing was already gone, spiraling away down the tunnel.
Jepp was holding him tightly, her eyes wide with shock.
“What was that thing?”
“I don’t know,” said Karsen. “But thanks for getting me out of there. If that
thing had hit me... ”
He heard rumbling once again, and Jepp pulled at his arm. “Come... l e t ’ s
g o... ”
“Yes, by all means.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
347

They retreated to where the rest of the group was waiting, and told them what
they’d seen.
“ T h a t w a s... a T r u l l e r , ” Gant said immediately.
“A what?”
“A Truller,” Mingo spoke up. “It’s a Trull conveyance. It moves through a
network of specially crafted tunnels, on tracks carved right into the rock.
Propelled through concen-
trated bursts of air or some such. Once one of those things starts moving, it
can go at amazing speeds.”

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“So I’ve noticed. If it weren’t for Jepp, I’d be in several pieces right
now.”
“If it weren’t for Jepp,” Zerena noted, “we wouldn’t be here in the first
place.”
“Mother—”
“What are you doing here!”
As one, their heads whipped around and standing there behind them was a Trull.
Karsen gasped. He’d never seen one before. The Trull was a little over half
Karsen’s size in terms of height, but he was remarkably wide, and Karsen was
sure that all of it was solid muscle. He was holding an ax so massive, Karsen
was sure he would have had trouble picking it up. But the Trull was holding it
with no problem in a most threatening man-
ner.
“No one intrudes in the Underground of the Trulls,”
he continued, bellowing with such force that his voice bounced off the walls
in deafening fashion. “You will be ripped to shreds for this, and your remains
dumped into the molten core of the Damned World!”
Not sounding the least perturbed, Mingo inquired, “Do you think you could
possibly keep your voice down? Be-
lieve it or not, we were trying for stealth.”
“Intruders!”
the Trull shouted even louder in response as he advanced, swinging his ax. The
problem for the Bottom
Feeders was that the tunnel where they were was particu-
larly narrow, and none of them had a lot of room to wield their weapons. The
far shorter Trull, on the other hand, had
348
PETER DAVID

plenty of room to maneuver, and he let out a war cry as he attacked.
He did not get very far, for Gant surged forward, literally vaulting over
Mingo’s head, and he completely enveloped the Trull. The Trull was halted
immediately, and he tried to swing his ax and cut through the viscous mass
that had covered him. But he could no more deter the amorphous
Gant than he could keep back the ocean tide by chopping at waves.
The Trull reflexively opened his mouth to let out a cry of protest, and
instantly Gant began to seep in. The Trull’s eyes widened in alarm. However
the most he could offer was a smothered burble of protest as Gant’s entire
mass inserted itself down the Trull’s throat. “Gant, what are you doing?”
Zerena shouted, but Gant made no response. In-
stead, seconds later, Gant had disappeared, the entirety of him having flowed
into the Trull’s mouth.
The Trull staggered, dropping his ax, his opponents ap-
parently forgotten. Instead he was clutching at his throat, trying to cough up
what had gone in there. He reeled and made deep hacking noises, but was
unsuccessful.
The rest of the Bottom Feeders waited, poised, their weapons at the ready, as
the Trull—who had fallen to his knees—slowly got to his feet. He looked at
the thick fingers on his hand, then thumped his hand on his chest, apparently
just to hear the sound his hand made. “All right,” he said sounding satisfied.
“This works.”
Zerena took a step forward, cocking her head in confu-
sion. “Gant?”
“Yes, it’s me,” he said, and although the general inflec-
tions sounded like him, he was speaking with a swiftness and precision that
hadn’t been available to him earlier. “I
think we have to keep moving, Zerena.”
She didn’t appear to have heard him. “What did you do?”
she demanded. “How long have you been able to do this?”

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“I didn’t know for sure I could until just now,” Gant ad-
mitted. His voice sounded deep and gravelly. He tapped the
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
349

side of his head. “I can feel the Trull rooting around in here, but don’t
worry. I’ve got him under control for the moment.
But I think that—”
That was the moment that they heard shouting and the sounds of running feet
from behind them, the way they’d come. “This way!” one was shouting and
“Intruders!” called out another.
“Let them come!” bellowed Rafe Kestor, swinging his sword and clanging it
against solid rock. “I defy them!”
“Rafe, please!”
He ignored Zerena, and swung his sword in the other di-
rection, narrowly missing Jepp. “Let them come, I say! Or I
shall go to them, and they shall swim in rivers of their own blood!”
And, thinking fast, Karsen shouted “They’re that way!”
and pointed at the path ahead of them, rather than behind them from where the
shouts were originating.
Unaware of the fact that the noises of pursuit were com-
ing from the opposite direction, Rafe Kestor shouted “Have at you, vile
opponents!” and charged in the direction that
Karsen had just indicated.
The rest of the Bottom Feeders immediately followed, moving as quickly as they
could. Karsen’s heart was racing.
He had no idea of the size of the force pursuing them. All he knew for certain
was that never in his life had he felt as alive as he did right then.
“Get him out of there!” Gant- as- Trull suddenly shouted.
Instantly Karsen saw what he was referring to. Rafe
Kestor, sprinting on ahead, had taken a stand squarely in the middle of the
tunnel through which the Trullers barreled at high speed. He was waving his
sword, and shouting, “Come!
Face me if you have the nerve!” To make matters worse, he heard a distant
rumbling that indicated to him a Truller was on its way. The odds that it
would stop before plowing through Rafe Kestor were non ex is tent.
Mingo led the charge. Moving faster than Karsen had ever seen him go, the
Minosaur shoved past the rest of the
350
PETER DAVID

Bottom Feeders who were in his way and charged into the tunnel. He grabbed
Rafe Kestor by the arm, and it was ob-
vious to Karsen from both the increasing rumbling sound and the expression on
Mingo’s face that the Truller was nearly upon them.
There was no time for delicacy. Mingo twisted, yanked
Rafe Kestor completely off his feet, and sent him tumbling out of the tunnel
into the cross corridor, safe from harm.
Then, to Karsen’s shock, instead of trying to get out of the way, Mingo leaped
forward, so high that his back was al-
most scraping against the ceiling.
The next thing Karsen knew, the Truller hurtled past.
Then there came a horrifying screeching, the sound of metal on rock, perhaps,
and then a crash. “Mingo!” he shouted, pounding toward the tunnel, Zerena
right behind him.
Heedless of his own safety, Karsen ran out into the smooth
Truller tunnel, looked in the direction that the Truller had gone, and fully
expected to see the worst. Instead what he saw stunned him.

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The Truller had come to a halt. The former passengers were lying in various
places against the cave wall, mostly looking either stunned or unconscious.
They’d been wearing protective headgear, which had probably been the only
thing that prevented them from having their skulls crushed. The
Truller, the ve hicle itself, was bucking furiously, like a re-
strained animal, as if the thing had a life of its own. Mingo was gripping the
back of the conveyance grunting with the effort of restraining the Truller.
“Get in,” he grunted. “It’s on some sort of auto mechanism. It wants to keep
moving.”
“Get in?” Zerena said doubtfully. “I don’t know if that’s—”
The shadows of the Trulls in pursuit suddenly made themselves evident at the
far end of the tunnel behind them.
“There they are!”
one shouted, and they charged with an earsplitting roar of challenge.
Offering no further words of protest, Zerena and the others piled in as fast
as they could. There were no seats within the
Truller. It was simply shaped like a large box, and presumably
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
351

riders just gripped the sides for dear life. How one steered it or
predetermined its destination, Karsen couldn’t even begin to guess. The only
thing he knew for sure was that Mingo had jumped over it when it had
approached him and then, moving faster than Karsen would have thought pos
sible, grabbed the back of it in passing, causing it to screech to a halt.
“Hurry!” Mingo called through gritted teeth.
“Gant, help me!” ordered Karsen, who was already in-
side. He grabbed Mingo’s right wrist. “Get his other hand!
Otherwise when he lets go, he’ll be left behind!”
“Oh right, can’t have that. Wouldn’t want to miss the fun,” Mingo grunted.
Gant did as Karsen instructed, gripping Mingo’s left wrist. “We’ve got you,
Mingo! Let it go!”
Mingo did so, relaxing the tension in his legs. Instantly, with Mingo no
longer applying opposite force to it, the
Truller leaped forward liked an uncaged wild beast. Mingo was yanked forward
and, moments later, Gant and Karsen had helped haul him in. He tumbled into
the Truller along with the others.
Karsen had a brief glimpse of a mass of Trulls charging into the cave behind
them, several of them shaking their weapons angrily. Then they were gone as
the Truller sped through the tunnel at teeth- rattling speed.
“You said this area was mostly deserted!” shouted Zer-
ena at Gant, trying to make her voice heard over the rushing of the air. “You
said no Trulls ever came out this way and we could skulk about unseen and
undetected!”
“So things have changed!” Gant shot back. “I can’t be expected to keep up
with everything!”
“Forget that!” said Karsen. “The important thing is, where are we going now?”
“You’re right,” Gant said. “That is the most important thing!”
“Well?” Karsen prompted when Gant didn’t continue the thought beyond that.
“Where are we going?”
“Haven’t the slightest idea,” said Gant. Then he smiled mischievously, a smirk
that looked very much out of place
352
PETER DAVID

on the grim features of the Trull. “But at least we’re getting there at a
rapid pace.”
“Wonderful,” muttered Karsen as the Truller sped away, taking them deeper and

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deeper into the depths of the Trull world.
THE COUNTRY OF FEEND
i.
By the time Nagel, king of the Ocular, had repeated for the third time to
Phemus exactly what he had done, he was be-
ginning to get just the least bit annoyed.
Phemus had looked surprised when he strode into
Nagel’s study and saw him going over various documents.
He had recovered quickly and greeted his ruler cordially, expressing surprise
to that the king had departed without giving the slightest hint as to where he
was off to. “Gone to seek an alliance with the Mandraques?” he said with smug
self- assurance, certain he already knew the answer.
His eyes widened as Nagel informed him he had con-
scripted a group of Bottom Feeders to obtain the Orb of the Trinity to wipe
out the Piri once and for all. Nagel spoke with a sort of jaunty defiance, as
if he were so proud of his actions that he needed to throw them in Phemus’s
face in order to get a reaction from him.
As Phemus stood speechless, Nagel repeated it twice more as if Phemus was so
addled that he might not have heard. Every time Nagel did so, Phemus went
redder and redder in the face.
Nor did the three times seem sufficient, as Phemus took several steps toward
Nagel, and then several back as if he were dancing, and repeated, “
What did you do?”
“I am reasonably certain, honored Phemus, that you’ve
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
353

genuinely heard me one of the previous times,” Nagel said, his eye unblinking.
“If I must reiterate it yet again, you may want to give some serious thought
to having your hearing checked.”
“But I told you to—”
Instantly Phemus shut his mouth, but it was too late as
Nagel fixed a deadly glare upon him. Slowly he closed the text he’d been
perusing and stood, looming over the smaller
Phemus.
“My king, I did not mean—”
“You told me!” he thundered. “And who are you to tell me, the King of the
Blind, what to do!”
Phemus tried to rally. “I am your se nior advisor,” he said, “and your father
trusted my advice!”
“Yes. He did,” said Nagel in a low, angry voice. “And he’s dead now. So a lot
of good your advice did him, eh?” Nagel continued to glare at him. “It was a
fool’s errand. And I am no fool, even though you apparently consider me one.”
“I swear by all the gods, my king, I do not,” Phemus managed to say, his voice
hoarse. “And if you wish to disre-
gard my advice... t h a t i s y o u r p r i v i l e g e... ”
“How generous of you.”
“ B u t...
Bottom Feeders, my king?” Phemus shook his head, unable to comprehend it. “You
assign a group of Bot-
tom Feeders to penetrate the lair of the Trulls and return you a device to
dispatch the Piri? Certainly you can see how someone might consider such a
decision to be... dubious.
If I may ask, what Bottom Feeders did you conscript into this endeavor?”
“Zerena Foux and her clan.”
“Zerena Foux,” echoed Phemus. “Well . . . she is re-
sourceful, I’ll credit her that. Still, my king, you must real-
ize the likelihood that they will not succeed.”
“Then it is their failure, Phemus, and not ours. As for your skill as an

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advisor, I might say that—particularly in re-
gards to the Mandraques—the advice of Zerena Foux and her family rang truer
to me than your own words. Even the human who accompanied them made more
sense—”
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“A Mort!” Phemus could not have sounded more shocked. “You take the counsel of
a Mort over mine!”
“I take my own counsel over yours, honored Phemus,”
said Nagel.
Phemus, squaring his shoulders, looked as if he were try-
ing to present as dignified a front as he possibly could. “If I
may say so, my king, it seems to me that perhaps I should consider tendering
my resignation from your ser vice. I
mean, if you are taking the advice of Bottom Feeders and
M o r t s o v e r m i n e... t hen truly, my king, I’m not entirely certain
of what further use I can be to you.”
“You serve at my plea sure, honored Phemus,” replied
Nagel, “and the decision to depart from that ser vice is not yours to make,
but mine to give. Now, if you’ll excuse me,”
and he headed for the door, “I’m feeling the need for some exercise. I think a
bout of hunting should do it. If I come back with something substantial, I
shall be certain to invite you when I have it cooked up and presented for
consump-
tion.”
“I would be honored, my king, to join you.”
“I knew you would.”
Just before Nagel got to the door, Phemus added, “I am honored that my king
believes I can be of some ser vice to him.”
“It’s partly that.”
“ P a r t l y...? ”
Nagel faced him and smiled unpleasantly. “If I keep you close to me, it makes
it that much easier for me to keep my eye upon you.” He tossed off a mock
salute and left the room, leaving a very shaken high advisor behind him.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
355

ii.
Let them try to ambush me. Just let them try.
The words kept going through Nagel’s head as he made his way through the
woods. There was thick cloud cover, so what there was of the moonlight
couldn’t shine down upon him.
But that didn’t bother Nagel; his night vision was unsurpassed by any of his
kind, and the darkness held no terrors for him.
That was certainly not the case for others in his kingdom, though, he was
certain of that. None of his people had re-
covered from the trauma of losing Merrih. As he and his hunting party had made
their way through the streets of
Feend, those few people he did encounter out and about gave him quick,
acknowledging glances, bowed just as fast, and then got out of his way. He
could hear “Merrih” and
“Piri” on their lips as he passed. That was how they all saw him: as a
failure.
Well, he thought grimly, they would be changing their tune, yes indeed. They
would be seeing things very differ-
ently once the Piri had been wiped out forever.
He was armed with a quiver of arrows and a long bow, as were the four other

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Ocular in his hunting party, and a long knife shoved into its scabbard in his
belt. When they ap-
proached the edge of the forest, he turned to the others and said, “We will
split into three groups. We can cover more ground and have a more successful
hunt that way. You two head that way, you other two in that direction, and
I’ll head forward on my own.”
There were uncomfortable looks exchanged between the guardsmen in the party.
“What?” demanded Nagel in an-
noyance.
“My king,” said one of them, “that will leave you vulner-
able, don’t you think? Certainly there are less risky ways in which to go
about this endeavor.”
“Are you implying that I cannot handle anything that should come my way?” he
asked, bristling. “Do you think that little of your king?”
356
PETER DAVID

“No, my king, I was just . . .”
“There is no need for you to continue that sentence be-
yond ‘my king.’ Understood?”
“Yes, my king,” said the Ocular guardsmen, and the oth-
ers nodded in agreement. None of them looked especially happy.
Nagel could understand why. Their first responsibility was to protect their
king, not to hunt. If the king should die during this endeavor, they would
seem derelict in their duty.
“Worry not,” he said, his tone softening. “We will remain within shouting
distance. So if any of you needs me to come to your rescue, you need but cry
out and I’ll attend to you.”
This prompted a few self- conscious snickers from the guardsmen, and
minutes later, Nagel was by himself in the forest.
Just in case, he had already removed an arrow from its quiver and nocked it,
but wasn’t drawing it tightly. His mind was racing with contradictory
thoughts. The fact was, he knew he was putting himself greatly at risk by
opting to hunt solo. He should have kept all his people together.
But he felt as if he needed to push his luck. To expose himself to danger,
even to risk his life.
Let the gods test me, he thought.
Let them see me, alone and vulnerable, and send enemies descending upon me so
that I may challenge them and myself. I want it. I need it.
Granted it was reckless behavior, but he desired reckless-
ness. The gods had chosen to sacrifice Merrih to the raven-
ing Piri. He had felt completely impotent since that time.
Although the nominal reason for this escapade was to hunt food, his real
desire was to capture or kill—preferably the latter—a Piri. He wanted to
murder one of the things and parade his capture before his people. To declare,
“Here!
Here is at least one that will never harm any of us again!”
He didn’t know whether that would make all that much dif-
ference to his people, but it would be a start. The destruc-
tion of all the Piri had to begin with a single one, and if anyone was going
to achieve that goal, it was going to be
Nagel.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
357

But he was certain the only way it could be a clean kill, a worthy kill would
be if he was out there in serious jeopardy, rather than surrounded by a squad
of protectors.

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The gods test us, and sometimes the tests are ours, and sometimes theirs, but
we must always pass those tests when given us, his father had once said to
him, and he had never forgotten those words.
He was beginning to think that Phemus was one of those tests.
Ever since he’d encountered the Bottom Feeders and sent them on their errand,
he had been dwelling on his relation-
ship with Phemus, colored by the words from his dead fa-
ther. He did not like the directions that his thoughts were taking him, and
was becoming increasingly convinced that he should be seeking motives as to
just why Phemus might be trying to send his people down the path to
destruction.
Motives that no doubt related to the “secret” his father had written about.
There was a stiff wind blowing into Nagel’s face, which was fortunate. It
meant that his scent would not be carried to anything that was ahead of him.
This gave him an element of surprise over all manner of beasts, two- or
four- legged, that might be roaming the forest this eve ning.
Nagel had never felt more alone than he did right at that moment, and it was
for reasons unrelated to his solitude in the forest. One went to advisors for
counsel, but when one needed advice about the advisors, where was there to
turn?
Then his heart hardened: This was the exact sort of thinking that his father
had held in such disdain. He was overthink-
ing matters. If there was reason to suspect Phemus, he should just take a
sword and dispatch the bastard rather than take chances.
A crack of branch and a rustling of brush from ahead of him interrupted his
thoughts, and he froze. Despite his size, he was well able to secret himself
within shadows and watch unobserved.
What ever had made the noise stopped as well. Perhaps he had been detected,
even though he had done all he could to
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PETER DAVID

remain unseen. Nagel held his breath, keeping the arrow loose in the bow lest
the creaking of the bow, when drawn, alert what ever it was that he was
stalking.
Nothing moved. Until this moment he’d been hearing all the small, normal
noises that one hears in the woods, but even they seemed to have vanished. It
was as if the entire forest was holding its breath, waiting to see what would
happen.
There. Movement again, in the brush, and sounds of something being pushed
aside. A hidden door, perhaps? It was too much to hope for, because a hidden
door in the ground could mean only one thing.
Sure enough, there it was. A Piri, big as life. A female, most definitely, and
not at all what he had expected to see from a Piri. She was almost elegant in
her appearance, with long, white, flowing hair. Her back was to him, but she
ap-
peared nude from the waist up; he couldn’t see the rest of her, as it was
blocked by the bushes.
He considered the impropriety of shooting prey from behind. But these vermin
had stolen Merrih from him through pernicious means. They deserved no pity,
none of them.
But still . . . it might provide a source of information as t o...
Stop thinking. Act.
Remembering the potential warning that the creaking of the bow might produce
when he pulled it, he knew he would have to move in one swift motion. He took
a deep breath, held it, thought, This is for you, Merrih, then stepped away
from the tree and into view in the same instant that he re-
leased the arrow.
It buzzed through the air, a fatal insect, and a second later the wailing

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scream of a female Piri sounded in the still night air.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
359

SUBTERROR
i.
Once again he came to Clarinda in her dreams, just as she had told him he did.
In the exact style of dream that was difficult to distin-
guish from being awake, Clarinda was supine upon her bed, naked. She could
hear everything; hear her own breathing, hear her heart beating. She was
waiting for something, and she knew she was waiting, but couldn’t quite
determine what exactly it was she was waiting for. And then he was there, her
amazing Eutok. Even in her dreams, she knew there was no practical reason she
should be attracted to him. Her standard of beauty, was shaped by the standard
of
Piri beauty, and Trulls were about as far away from that standard as could
be.
Perhaps it was what he represented: a possible way out from the life and race
that she despised.
She called out to him repeatedly, and he came to her and embraced her, and
held her tight and whispered to her. She felt comforted by him, and felt as if
she wanted to hold him forever.
And suddenly Eutok jolted in her arms. His mouth dropped open wide, and she
stared at him, not comprehend-
ing. Then he rolled off her, his dead body thudding to the floor, and there
was her mother standing behind him, with a long wooden stake in her hand and
her lips drawn back to reveal her formidable fangs.
“Join me?” Sunara Redeye asked. And when Clarinda simply sat there, paralyzed
with both anger and terror, Sunara dropped to the ground, grabbed Eutok by the
throat, plunged her fangs into him, and drank deep. And Clarinda

kept sobbing and crying “Eutok! Oh, gods, Eutok!” as her mother drained him
dry of blood...
She awoke with a start, trapped for a moment in that in-
stant between sleep and wakefulness, where one has to mentally come to the
realization that a bad dream was still just that: a dream, and not something
to concern oneself over. Upon discovering that she was alone in her chambers,
that her mother was not there nor, thank the gods, was Eu-
tok, she let out a relieved sigh.
But the sigh caught in her throat when she spotted Merrih seated a short
distance away. Naturally Clarinda’s cham-
bers were not designed for one of Merrih’s stature, but Mer-
rih had managed to find a seat on the floor and had her legs pulled up tightly
so that her chin was resting upon her knees. She was watching Clarinda with
her steady, unblink-
ing single eye.
“Merrih,” Clarinda finally managed to say. “I was not . . .
what are you doing here? I . . .”
“I can feel myself . . .” said Merrih, her voice sounding haunted, “slipping
away. Bit by bit, the person I was . . . the
M e r r i h I w a s... i s becoming someone I don’t recognize.
Someone horrible. Someone . . . like you.”
Clarinda, sitting up in her bed, drew her covers around herself. “I can
sympathize. I doubt you’ll find anyone in this entire land who is as filled
with self- loathing as I am.”
“I have to leave,” said Merrih.
“As do I. But I—”
“No,” Merrih said, so sharply that it startled Clarinda and she reflexively

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brought her covers up higher on her body.
“There is no ‘but’ here. I want to get out of here while I can still
recognize myself.”
“Don’t you think I feel the exact same way!”
“Not enough,” said Merrih tightly.
Clarinda’s face twisted in cold fury. “Don’t you dare.
Don’t you dare try to diminish how I feel. You have no clue the lengths I
would go to—”
Merrih drew close to the bed and crouched, her single
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
361

eye glowering down at Clarinda. “You talk a great game of wanting to get away
from your mother . . . of the fear of eventual mutilation. But you won’t take
action to change your situation. You just complain about it or hope that
someone else will attend to matters. Who is Eutok?”
ii.
The three words stopped Clarinda before she could readily respond.
Oh my gods. She knows. Mother knows. She must h a v e t o l d h e r . I h
a v e t o...
. . . kill Merrih. Kill my mother. Kill all of them. It’s the only answer.
It’s happening too quickly, everything isn’t in place, but I’m out of time,
I’m out of . . .
Her eyes narrowed, her chin lowered, like an animal be-
ing backed into a corner, she said, “I know no one by that n a m e... ”
“Interesting you should say that, since I have heard you cry out his name in
your sleep. And not just this night; other nights as well. You murmur of
running off with him. You watch your words during your wakefulness, Clarinda,
but you’ve no protection in your sleep.”
Clarinda licked her lips, which were suddenly bone dry.
When she didn’t reply, Merrih said briskly, “Very well. If it’s all the same
to you, I shall see whether the name means anything to your mother then.”
As she rose to leave, Clarinda’s immediate impulse was to leap for Merrih,
grab her by the chin, and snap her neck. She wasn’t certain that she could
manage it, but she was willing to give it a try. Resisting the notion, she
shouted, “Wait!”
She did it so loudly that her voice seemed to echo forever, and she clamped a
hand over her mouth in chagrin. Merrih, meantime, looked carved from ice,
unflinching, unmoving.
“Something jog your memory?” Merrih asked softly when the echoing voice had
finally died down.
“ M e r r i h... y o u h a v e t o l i s t e n t o r eason... ”
Merrih dropped down to one knee, bringing herself in
362
PETER DAVID

close to Clarinda, and speaking in a harsh whisper. “I don’t know what
‘reason’ is anymore. I don’t know the state of my own mind at any given time.
Your mother unleashes cravings in me... d a r ksome urges... t h a t I n e
v e r w o u l d have thought I had, and would have denied it if someone said
I had them. I veer wildly between extremes. The longer
I’m here, the more I’m being drained away, and I simply cannot allow it to
continue. If I do, then even if I ever see my people again, I’ll just be
this... t h i s h o l l o w shell where
Merrih once was, with my own spirit broken and reshaped into an image your
mother finds preferable.”
“But if we’re caught—”
“Then let’s make certain we don’t get caught.”

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Trying to sound reasonable, desperately hoping to buy time—time to convince
Eutok, time to come up with an-
other option—Clarinda said, “It’s not as easy as all that.”
“Well here’s an idea,” Merrih shot back. “Let’s pretend that it is. Let’s
pretend that we can actually get out of here with relatively little
difficulty. Let’s pretend that you’re go-
ing to help me because you don’t want me mentioning any uncomfortable names,
such as Eutok’s, to your mother.
She’s on to you, Clarinda,” she continued as Clarinda tried t o i n t e r r u
p t h e r . “ S h e w a n t s m e t o s p y o n y o u . S h e w a n
t s...
I don’t know what she wants. But she’s going to get it from me, sooner or
later, because if matters continue as they are, I doubt any of the female I
was will remain to resist her.”
“Merrih, it won’t be like that, I swear—”
“It already is like that.” Merrih put her hands to her head and gently thumped
against either temple, becoming more and more agitated. “She’s crawling around
in there, and if she keeps up, it’s going to be too late. It has to end.” En-
couragingly, she added, “You can come with me.”
Clarinda knew at that point that Merrih was as desperate as she, if the Ocular
was floating fantasies even less likely than taking up residence with Eutok.
“No.”
“Live with the Ocular . . .”
“We’ve been over this, Merrih,” Clarinda reminded her.
“Yes, I know, and I know it’s not a perfect solution, but
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
363

dammit, Clarinda, no perfect solution is going to present it-
self. But the solution that doesn’t work for me is that I re-
main here and wind up unrecognizable as myself. And that’s what will happen
if I remain here much longer, I know it. I
know it. Time is not our friend.”
“All right, all right
!” Clarinda buried her face in her hands. She felt as if her world was
crashing in on her. She knew that Merrih was right. Time wasn’t on their side.
But if she was running from her enemies, how was she advan-
taged if her course took her off a cliff? From that muffled position, she
said, “Just give me a few turns to—”
“No,” Merrih said firmly. “We leave now.”
“Now? This instant?”
“Yes, now, this instant.”
“You’ve taken leave of your senses.”
“No. Not yet. But if we leave now, then with any luck I
never will.”
Clarinda stared at Merrih and, to her surprise, she felt herself drawing
strength from the determined young Ocu-
lar.
Yes. We are parasites. That is my greatest problem. I am what I am, and I have
no resources of my own... o n l y w h a t
I take from others. Let me take her strength. Let my desper-
ation feed into hers and together we can do this. We can sur-
v i v e... somehow. I don’t know how... b u t somehow.
“Let’s go,” said Clarinda.
iii.
Merrih could only marvel in amazement as she and
Clarinda made their way through an intricate series of turns and tunnels,
Clarinda in the lead. Not only did Clarinda seem to know where they were
with almost supernatural consistency, but they had yet to encounter a single

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other Piri along the way. Even more interestingly, the tunnels were ac-
cessible only for someone who knew where they were and where they led, for
several times along the way they had en-
countered “switching points” where the path they wanted to
364
PETER DAVID

take was hidden behind what appeared solid rock. It was only when Clarinda
activated hidden triggers, causing the rocks to swing wide and reveal hidden
entrances, that she discovered the hinges upon which the rocks were
situated.
“Nice little arrangement you have here,” noted Merrih as they made their way
through one of the hidden passages.
“It’s not my arrangement,” Clarinda replied. “Believe it or not, these par
tic u lar tunnels were originally built by Morts.”
“You’re joking.”
“That’s what my mother says. There’s different theories as to why. Mother
claims it was refugees hoping to hide from the Third Wave. But one of my
teachers said it was from an even earlier time, when they feared some sort of
calamity—war, an invasion, some such—and created them as an escape route or
shelter. In their own way, the Morts were as warlike as any in the Twelve
Races.”
They reached another wall of rock which obediently slid aside at Clarinda’s
touch. They stepped out into another corridor and, as the rock eased back into
its place, Clarinda turned and let out a startled shriek.
Merrih saw there was a Piri standing there, grinning toothily, clearly pleased
with himself. He was tall and strong and appeared most amused with the
situation.
“Kelliron,” Clarinda said, clearly annoyed. “What are you doing here? Not
your usual haunt, is it.”
“Not at all, no,” replied the Piri she’d addressed as Kell-
iron. “But your mother asked me to keep an eye on this par-
tic u lar area to see if you happened to pass through. She’s been talking to
quite a few of us lately.” He glanced at Mer-
rih. “Has she spoken to you?”
Merrih made no response. Her back was aching, since she was bending herself
nearly in half to fit into the rocky corridor.
“All right, you’ve seen me,” said Clarinda. “Now stand aside. Merrih and I
are... ”
“Are what?” He tilted his head with open curiosity.
“What are you and Merrih up to?”
Squaring her shoulders and tilting her chin in a most
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
365

regal manner, Clarinda said airily, “Now that I think on it, I
don’t see that it’s any of your business, Kelliron.”
“I have to disagree,” replied Kelliron, and his smile spread even wider. There
was something nasty in the way he was looking at her, so much so that Clarinda
suspected what he was going to say before he said it. “You see . . .
your mother has been rather impressed with me. She’s spo-
ken to me about being your mate.”
Even though she’d been expecting him to say it, Clarinda was taken aback. She
tried to shake her head, but she felt paralyzed. “No. She hasn’t . . .”
“But she has. And she made it very clear that my oppor-
tunity rested upon just how vigilant I was in the assignment she gave me.” He
drew closer to her, and he reached out to touch her long white hair. She
pulled back, muttering a curse. “You’ll come with me now... y o u a n d y o

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u r p l a y -
thing,” and he glanced at Merrih disdainfully, “and then you and your mother
will have words . . . and, after that, I
will very likely receive my just reward.”
“Why wait?” Merrih asked.
The Ocular, as a race, were generally rather slow- moving.
The Piri, by contrast, were incredibly quick.
Because of that, it never occurred to Kelliron that one such as Merrih could
ever lay hands on him. So it was that
Merrih’s hands clamping upon him, one around his slim waist, the other around
the side of his head, came as a sur-
prise. He tried to break free of her grasp, but had no more luck than a rat
trapped in the vise grip of a tiger’s jaws.
Clarinda moved forward, realizing this was the moment to take him down. She
had to dispose of him; there was no choice. And then, to her shock, before
Kelliron could let out a shriek of protest or cry of alarm, his throat was
suddenly between Merrih’s teeth.
With one crunching, fearsome bite, she ripped out both his larynx and his
jugular vein. Blood fountained from the Piri, but he had no voice with which
to vent his screams. He strug-
gled as Merrih drank deep of his blood. She was making pleased, gurgling
sounds as she lapped up the thick, brackish
366
PETER DAVID

fluid. Clarinda backed up until she was against the cave wall and could move
no further, her eyes riveted to the gory sight as Merrih drained Kelliron dry
with an expertise that sug-
gested she’d been doing it her entire life.
And when his body stopped twitching, Merrih lowered him and, her eye, like a
blood moon, gleaming red with the kill, glowered at Clarinda as she growled
“Open that up again” in a voice barely recognizable as her own.
Clarinda did as she instructed and Merrih tossed Kell-
iron’s body into the tunnel from which they’d emerged.
Without needing to be told, Clarinda closed it, then turned and let out a
startled shriek to discover Merrih’s face bare inches from her own.
Merrih licked her lips, and then drew her arm across her mouth to wipe away
the blood that flecked it. Then she fell to her knees, her stomach heaving,
and she vomited up the blood that she had just ingested. Weakly she murmured,
“Get . . . me... o u t o f h e r e . ”
“Yes. Yes,” Clarinda said numbly, and she led the way, Merrih following her
closely. The entire time she did so, she was bracing herself for the
possibility of Merrih—
seized with newfound bloodlust—falling upon Clarinda herself and draining
her as dry as she had Kelliron.
Finally Clarinda halted. Merrih growled behind her.
“Why have we stopped?”
“You’ll see,” said Clarinda, and she reached up and rapped on what appeared to
be more of the rocky tunnel interior.
But instead of the solid sound one would have expected, it sounded hollow.
“What in the—?”
“The Morts were ingenious, you have to give them that,”
Clarinda said with a grim smile. “This area where we’re s t a n d i n g...
i t ’ s q u i t e n e a r t h e s u r f ace. This is a secret exit.
Undetectable from above.”
“You go first,” said Merrih.
Clarinda took a deep breath. “Did you really mean what you said?” she asked.
“About my staying with you?”
“ C l a r i n d a... l ook at me,” said Merrih grimly. “Do you

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DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
367

think I’m unaware of what I did just a little while ago? I
have no idea how my own people are going to react to me.
Nagel will embrace me, I know, but until this condition wears off . . . it
will wear off, won’t it . . . ?” There was sud-
den ner vous ness in her voice.
“Of course,” Clarinda, having no idea, assured her.
“All right. Then until that happens... y o u m i g h t w e l l b e the
only friend I have in all of Feend. The only one who can understand what I’m
going through. I will do my best to protect you.”
“You are lying,” Clarinda said with sudden heat. “I’m go-
i n g t o d i e . Y o u ’ r e g o i n g t o... t o... ” S h e s t
opped, let out a choked sob, and then laughed bitterly. “As if I have a damned
choice. I don’t believe for a moment that Kelliron was the only one of my
people that my mother was speak-
ing to about being my mate. My time is running out . . . if it hasn’t already,
once they find his body. And they will, sooner or later. So... t ogether,
then.”
“Together,” said Merrih. “Lead the way.”
Clarinda pulled on the trapdoor. It didn’t open immediately, not having been
used for some time. But in short order, she managed to yank it free and it
dropped open. Cool night air rushed in, and Clarinda eased her way up into it
and through.
Her head broke the surface and she glanced around, com-
ing no farther than just enough for her to see her where-
abouts. She sniffed the wind that blew against her face, but detected nothing.
There were large bushes nearby that helped screen her presence, which gave
her an additional feeling of security.
Gods, smile upon my endeavor, she thought as she hauled herself to the
surface.
I am damned.
But I’m damned if I leave and damned if I stay. Let me die damned, then,
rather than live that way.
Without a word, she turned, reached down, and extended a hand to Merrih.
Merrih gripped it and was so damned heavy that she almost yanked Clarinda
right back down into the hole. Once Clarinda had given her sufficient leverage
to get her hands up on the surface, she stepped back so that
Merrih could pull herself up the rest of the way.
368
PETER DAVID

Clarinda stood upright, stretching her arms. Merrih, meantime, had pulled her
waist through and was just bring-
ing her feet up.
And at that instant, a strange “twang” sound split the night air . . . a small
sound, but to Clarinda, deafening in the stillness.
She had no idea what it was.
All she knew was that barely an instant after she heard it, Merrih had emerged
completely from the ground and was standing, facing Clarinda, and she was
about to say some-
thing when she shuddered, staggered, and looked down in confusion.
There was some sort of point projecting from her chest.
Her mouth opened to speak, but blood was emerging from it, as it also was from
her chest. Her eye widened. She clawed at the point, tried to pull it clear,
and it was then that
Clarinda realized what had happened and let out an ear-

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piercing screech of terror.
Merrih yanked hard and the arrow came clear through her chest and out the
other side. Now blood was pouring down her front, and her legs trembled and
began to collapse, and her eye rolled up in its socket as she started to fall
forward.
With only a second to react, Clarinda did the one thing she could think of.
She leaped back down into the hole, grabbing the hinged door and slamming it
shut over her head as she fell through.
She landed hard on the cave floor, gasping for air, her hands over her mouth
as she heard Merrih, like a great tree, fall so hard upon the ground that it
shuddered from the im-
pact. Clarinda could have vacated the area, but instead she crouched there in
the darkness, listening. She heard pound-
ing footsteps, and then they stopped.
“Oh gods,” croaked a voice from above, “oh gods, oh gods, what have I done,
what have I done
!” And then the voice went loud, deafening, and it screamed
“Merrrrrrrihhhhhh!”
so loudly that, even from her subterranean hiding place, Clarinda could hear
the sounds of hundreds of birds, startled from their slumber, taking wing from
their perches in the treetops.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
369

There was no further sound for a brief time, and then came the pounding of
running feet. They were coming from several directions at once, and the
ground was shaking so violently above Clarinda that she threw her arms over
her head as clods of dirt were raining upon her.
Then came outcries of horror and lamentation, and they were saying, “What
happened, my king?” and “Did you find her like this?”
And then came a reply that shook Clarinda to her core.
“The Piri,” said the trembling voice that she had only moments earlier heard
sobbing self- recriminations. “I . . . I
found her like this. Look what they did to her, the bastards.
Look at her skin... t h e y m ade her like them, and... a n d then they
brought her up here and they... t h e y s t abbed her to death in a final
gesture of contempt.”
That lying sack of shit!
If it hadn’t meant certain death for her, Clarinda would have thrown open the
door and thrown his lies back into his face.
We didn’t kill her! We loved her! We loved her! You killed her, you son of a
bitch, you bastard, it was you
—
“No mercy for the Piri!” one of them cried out, and the others took up the
shout as well. “Hunt them down! Kill them!
Kill them all!” “This is the final insult!” “Poison them!”
“Burn them out!” “Flood them out!” “They will die, they will die, to avenge
the death of Merrih!” “We will force oth-
ers to help us if need be, and if they don’t, they will be our enemies as
well!” “We’ll destroy every race on the Damned
World, if that’s what it takes, to kill the Piri!”
Long after their howls of outrage and lamentations had faded, long after they
had carried away Merrih’s body while shouting their vows of revenge, Clarinda
remained where she was, alternately laughing over the prospect of her race’s
possibly imminent demise freeing her from the tyranny of her mother, and
sobbing over the loss of the only female on the planet whom she could even
remotely call “friend.”
That was the condition in which the other Piri found her.
370

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PETER DAVID

THE CITY- STATE OF VENETS
i.
Orin Arn Oran got to the Reef as quickly as he could, sum-
moned by messages that were confusing and contradictory but hinted of some
im mense calamity. He hurtled through the watery streets of Venets in his
personal speeder, leaving a considerable wake and a number of disgruntled
Merks who had been standing about, minding their own business, and gotten
themselves profoundly soaked as a result.
Under ordinary circumstances, he would have slowed, apologized, acted in the
gentlemanly manner that he be-
lieved was expected of him. But the word had come from the Reef that an
emergency was at hand, something truly horrific, and no time could be wasted.
So it was that he got to the Reef faster than he ever would have thought
possible.
He killed the engine of his speeder and vaulted onto the
Reef, where the Reefkeeper was waiting in great agitation, pacing back and
forth and looking as pale as Orin Arn Oran had ever seen a Merk.
One of the keeper’s assistants was there as well, and to
Orin Arn Oran’s confusion, he was patrolling the edge of the Reef with a
harpoon. Orin noticed something else im-
mediately, and that was that the gate that blocked the
Markene access to the Reef, and its bounty of Klaa, was in the down position.
He had no idea why; he was the only one who ever ordered the gate closed, and
then it was only for the purpose of getting the Markene’s attention in order
to give them new directives.
Then there was a burble of water, and the assistant with the harpoon moved
toward it, harpoon at the ready. There, emerging from the water, was a
Markene—an el der ly one by the look of it—and Orin Arn Oran gasped in
shock.

The Markene was covered in some sort of huge, thick, black ooze. He was
splashing about pathetically, only parts of his face and small sections of his
body visible. The rest was obscured by the what ever- it- was that had
enveloped him. And the truly pitiable aspect of it all was that the
Markene didn’t even seem aware of his condition.
“What in gods’ name is that . . . that . . .
thing on him?”
“I don’t know, Warlord,” said the concerned keeper, “but that it’s on him
isn’t what worries me.”
Before he could continue, the Markene surged forward toward the Reef, and he
groaned “Klaaaaaa,” even as the as-
sistant stepped forward and shoved the harpoon toward him.
The point went deep into the Markene’s shoulder, as much from his own forward
momentum as anything the assistant was doing. “Klaaaaaa,” he moaned again, and
then slid back into the water. For the life of him, Orin couldn’t determine
whether the Markene knew that he’d been stabbed.
“Well, what then—?” Orin Arn Oran’s voice trailed off as he stared down at
the water lapping against the edge of the coral reef. His eyes widened, and he
felt a chill in his very marrow. “It’s in the water, too. Along the edge,
there,” he pointed, “and there... ”
“It’s on the Klaa,” the Keeper said tonelessly.
“On how much of it?”
“On it. On the Klaa,” the keeper told him. Orin stared at him, not
comprehending at first. “On all of the Klaa. This, t h i s... g u n k... i
t ’ s w ashed up onto the whole Reef. The whole coral reef on which the
Klaa is harvested.” He spread his arms wide, as if he could encompass the

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entirety of the miles- wide reef. “There is no part of it, none, that is not
cov-
ered in this. It’s ruined the Klaa.”
“Not all of the Klaa... ”
“All of it!”
The keeper’s frustration was mounting, and
Orin felt powerless to prevent the keeper from becoming up-
set, because he was having trouble pro cessing what he was being told, and he
knew it. He truly understood what the keeper was saying, but his brain
wouldn’t accept it. In his own way, he was just as deliberately blinded as the
addled, 372
PETER DAVID

gunk- covered Markene who was keening for his drug. “All of the Klaa! The
entire harvest is ruined!”
Orin took a few steps along the Reef, as if he could—in that short
distance—find a section that somehow had es-
caped damage. “How long?”
“ H o w l o n g...? ” N o w i t w a s t h e k eeper’s turn not to
comprehend. “How long what, Warlord?”
“How long to remove this stuff from the Klaa?”
“It can’t be removed.”
“There has to be a way to—”
“Don’t you think I
tried
!” What ever decorum the keeper should have been displaying, what ever
respect he should have been showing the Warlord, was gone. He had had far more
time than Orin to come to grips with the situation and realize all the ruinous
consequences. “It won’t come off!
We scraped, we scrubbed... n o t h i n g ! I t c o v e r s t h e K l a a
like a black plague of death—”
“Klaaaaaa!”
The Markene’s howling was almost deaf-
ening.
“Where did that damned Markene come from, anyway?”
“The same place any of them come from. I found him in there. He was probably
going to sample some of his beloved Klaa. They don’t come on any sort of or
ga nized schedule—”
“I know that!” Orin did not appreciate being addressed as if he knew nothing
of the Markene.
The keeper didn’t seem to catch the irritated tone, or if he did, he ignored
it. “And he got himself covered with the same garbage that’s all over the
Reef. As soon as I saw him, I lowered the gate so none others would get in
here.”
“You’re sure there are none others here.”
“Yes. But they’ll be arriving at the gate before long.
They’ll hear him caterwauling about the Klaa. How could they not?”
Orin Arn Oran only had to give a moment’s thought to the unthinkable. “Kill
him,” he said.
“But—”
“Look at him. The poor bastard’s done for anyway. The
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
373

last thing we need is for him to summon more of his ilk in his death throes.”
Orin made a throat- cutting gesture to the assistant.
The assistant nodded once, drew back his arm, and let fly.
The harpoon flew truly, and it lanced the hapless Markene through the chest.

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The power of the throw sent the Markene twisting back, and he thrashed about
in the water, still saying, “Klaa, Klaa,” seemingly unaware that he had just
been killed.
The assistant and the keeper looked away. Orin Arn Oran wanted to do the same,
but he forced himself to look and to listen to every last word the tragic
dying creature uttered.
As a result, he heard the Markene’s final word, spoken harshly over the death
rattle in his throat. Then the Markene rolled over, limp, and simply floated
there, unmoving. So thick was the coating of blackness around the Markene
that, although the harpoon had penetrated, no blood was welling forth. Orin
had to think that was a blessing, as the others might well have scented it in
the water, and who knew the reaction they’d have then?
“Get him out of the water,” he said. “Have him sent to the science hall
immediately. I want to know what that . . . that substance on him, and on the
coral, is.” As the keeper ges-
tured for the unhappy assistant to haul the heavy Markene’s body from the
water, and as the assistant went to seek out aid in doing so, Orin asked him,
“If the Klaa can’t be cleaned off—and I believe you that it cannot,” he said
quickly, inter-
cepting the keeper’s response, “how long would it take to grow more Klaa? To
scrub the coral clean so that Klaa can grow upon it once more?”
“I have no idea, Warlord.”
“Guess.”
“Guess?”
“Guess!”
said the irritated Warlord. “Give me at least some vague idea. Something I can
take back to Lord Sydonis and give him something approaching an estimate.”
“Hundreds of tides, at least.”
“Hundreds?” Orin gasped. “Are you saying it could be an entire cycle around
the sun before—?”
374
PETER DAVID

The Keeper nodded. “It could very well be, yes. Or longer.”
“Gods.” Orin sank down upon the Reef, staring bleakly at the blackness of the
water as it splashed up. “You’ll keep the gate down. Most of the Markene had
their Klaa not long ago, correct?”
“Yes, Warlord.”
“Then they shouldn’t need it all that much. Not this soon.
If any of them do start gathering, send them to the Pier. I
will give them orders there.”
“What will you say to them?”
“I’m still working on that,” Orin told him. Seeking any-
thing else to say that involved something other than the hopeless position
they’d just been put in, Orin asked, “That last thing the Markene said. Did
you understand it?”
“I did not hear it, Warlord.”
“I could swear he said something like ‘Gorkon.’ Does that have any meaning to
you, that word?”
The keeper thought about it, then shook his head. “Noth-
ing, Warlord. Nothing at all. You might not have heard him p r o p e r l y...
o r p e r haps it’s the name of someone close to him. There’s no way we can
ever know now,” he added, looking dismally at the Markene’s corpse as it was
hauled from the water.
“I have a very sick feeling, Keeper, that you are wrong,”
Orin Arn Oran said. “I think we will know. And I think we’ll be sorry when we
do know.”
ii.
Having heard the entire story, the lady was having trouble believing it. “

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All the Klaa?
Gone?”
Orin Arn Oran had arrived in the main council room to break the news to the
lord and lady of Venets. Upon hearing the beginnings of it, however, Tulisia
had whisked the War-
lord to her private study, leaving Ruark Sydonis behind in the council room,
smiling in his infuriatingly polite and
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
375

perpetually confused manner. There she questioned the
Warlord intently, until finally he called an abrupt halt to it, much to her
surprise.
“My lady,” he said sharply, “you keep asking me the same questions and I
assure you my answers won’t be chang-
ing.” Then he took a breath, calming himself, before he continued.
“Understand, I do not blame you. I was in the very same state of mind as you,
unable to comprehend the breadth of our situation. I kept looking for ways for
mat-
ters to be different than they are. But they are what they are, and we must
begin coping with them.”
“But . . . the Klaa is our club over the Markene,” Tulisia said. “If . . .”
Again his impatience overwhelmed him, and this time he made no effort to
apologize for it. “Yes, Lady, I know that, you know that, we all know that.
The situation facing us is, what is to be done about it?”
“What will happen if the Markene are deprived of Klaa?”
“I don’t know for sure, Lady,” said Orin. “Certainly there will be a physical
withdrawal. They will become far less placid. They may resist our orders, even
refuse to obey them.”
“It may be worse than that.”
The unexpected intrusion of a third voice startled the both of them, and they
turned to see Ruark Sydonis stand-
ing in the doorway. Tulisia couldn’t help but think that he seemed unusually
focused on the discussion. Still, out of long habit, she said dismissively,
“This is none of your con-
c e r n , R u a r k... ”
“With respect, my dear, I cannot help but think it is,” Ru-
ark said, shambling into the room. “If we are on the brink of losing control
of the Markene, it will be of concern to all, isn’t that so?”
“Yes, Lord,” Orin Arn Oran said quickly before Tulisia could make some sort of
biting response. She shot him an annoyed look but held her tongue for the
moment. “You are aware of the situation?”
“I couldn’t help but overhear the discussion, yes.”
376
PETER DAVID

“And do you have any thoughts on the matter, Lord?”
Ruark seemed about to speak, but then looked in defer-
ence to his wife. “I wouldn’t wish to speak out of turn.”
Tulisia made that impatient noise with her lips that both
Ruark and Orin had come to know all too well. “You are lord of the Sirene,
Ruark. Obviously nothing you say could be considered out of turn. It’s always
your turn! So speak!
How are we going to keep the Markene in check!”
“Well,” he said slowly, thoughtfully, “perhaps the time has finally come for
them not to be in check.”
Orin and Tulisia exchanged puzzled looks. “I’m not fol-
lowing, Lord,” said Orin.

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“Warlord, unless I’m very much mistaken... t h e M a r k e n e are not
animals.”
“ O f c o u r s e t h e y ’ r e n o t , L o r d... ”
“Nor are they slaves, even though it has been the tradi-
tional approach to treat them as either animals or slaves or b o t h . S o I
w a s j u s t t h i n k i n g... a n d I’m sure there are per-
fectly good reasons why this isn’t possible, but still . . . I
was just thinking it might make sense to treat the Markene as our peers.”
“Peers.” Tulisia said the word flatly, with no inflection, not quite able to
believe it had even been voiced.
“Yes,” replied Ruark with a distinct cheerfulness that indi-
cated he was clueless to her negative reaction. “If these are the first
Markene in generations to have clarity of mind and vision thanks to the loss
of Klaa, then perhaps we should re-
gard this as an opportunity rather than a hardship. Don’t you think?”
Orin Arn Oran, speechless, waited for Tulisia to speak.
For a long moment, Tulisia was silent. And then she said, “You’re insane.”
“Am I?” Ruark sounded concerned, as if he’d just re-
ceived a pronouncement of a fatal illness. “Are you sure? I
don’t think I’m insane. Then again, I suppose I would be the last one to be in
a position to know, wouldn’t I.”
“The Markene,” continued Tulisia, “are our servants.
They perform simple tasks, are not required to think, and
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
377

receive their precious Klaa as reward. The Merk will never accept a change in
that status. That, Ruark, is insanity.”
“ Y o u k n o w... I t h o u g h t a s m uch. But I just needed to hear
you say it.”
“Well, now you’ve heard it.”
He smiled beatifically. “Thank you for clarifying that for me, my dear. I
don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Yes, I’ve little doubt of that.”
Orin Arn Oran clearly felt uncomfortable being present at such an exchange,
and he quickly said, “That still leaves us with the question of what to do
about the Markene. At the very least, we must cancel the... ” S uddenly
realizing he didn’t know how much Ruark knew about Tulisia’s plans, but having
no elegant means of getting the lord of the Sirene to leave the room, Orin
said delicately, “. . . the endeavor . . .
that you and I discussed, Lady.”
She looked blank for a moment, but then realized. With-
out giving him a glance, Tulisia said imperiously, “Ruark, leave us now.”
“All right,” Ruark said obediently, and he headed out the door, closing it
behind him.
Orin was about to speak, but Tulisia put up a webbed fin-
ger cautiously, and crept over to the door. She threw it open and looked
around. There was no sign of Ruark. Satisfied, she closed it again and turned
to face Orin. “The hell we cancel it,” she said.
“In five tides, the Markene will likely be in the full throes of withdrawal,”
said Orin. “Then, if not sooner. The last thing we need—”
“The last thing we need is for them to be anywhere near us!” countered
Tulisia. Her mind was racing, trying to see all the variables. “Actually... t
h i s i s p e r f e c t . ”
“
Perfect?
How—?”
“Don’t you see?” she said eagerly, crossing to Orin and gripping his tunic.
“This disaster, what ever caused it . . . it’s given us total cover. Before,

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if the Markene attack failed, we would have been forced simply to disavow
knowledge of
378
PETER DAVID

it. Now, however, should things not go our way, we can point to the mishap
with the Klaa and make clear that it was utterly out of our control. The Klaa
was destroyed, the Markene went berserk. How are we then to be held
responsible if the focus of their rage was the sailing vessels of the Travel-
ers? Eh?”
“I . . . I suppose... ”
“There is no supposing here, Orin. There is only cer-
tainty. Furthermore, if they are truly going through the sort of agonizing
withdrawal that you are describing, then they will be uncommonly fierce,
bordering on savage. Do not forget that our interest was in testing the limits
of the Trav-
elers’ invincibility. The Markene will be in the ideal state of mind for what
we need them to do. There are no negatives here. This is a blessing in
disguise.”
“If I may say so,” Orin said, still doubtful, “it is a re-
markably crafty disguise.”
She released her grip on him, turning away and shaking her head. “You must
look beyond your immediate concerns, Warlord. See opportunities for what they
truly are. The best aspect of this is that the attack upon the Travelers will,
at the very least, thin the numbers of Markene. Certainly there will be losses
to the herd. No matter what the outcome, that will leave us less Markene to
deal with, in a far more man-
ageable number than before.”
“Does it not bother you, Lady, that we’ve no clue as to how this situation
came to pass? This substance that has washed up upon the coral . . .”
She shrugged. “A freak accident. Happenstance. Whim of the gods. Call it what
ever you wish. Ultimately, the gods challenge us, Orin Arn Oran, and we must
rise to those challenges. Can I count on you to do so?”
He bowed slightly. “Always, Lady.”
She smiled, and then cupped his chin in her hand. “I
knew I could.” Then, to Orin’s obvious surprise, she drew his mouth to hers
and kissed him fiercely, her tongue thrusting into his mouth as she did so. He
made no move to
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
379

pull away, paralyzed as he was. Then she withdrew and, smile remaining upon
her face, said, “Attend to the Markene.
Send them against the Travelers now. Don’t even have them wait on station;
have them go out and launch the at-
tack. Then return to me, tell me it has been attended to . . .
and we shall see what we shall see.”
“Y-Yes, Lady,” he managed to get out, and then he retired hastily from the
room, leaving a very satisfied Tulisia antic-
ipating, in a most positive manner, the events of the next several tides.
Meanwhile, next door, Ruark Sydonis put down the lis-
tening device he’d had pressed up against the wall and smiled in a similar
manner of anticipation. But those devel-
opments which he expected were very different from what his mate was looking
forward to.
iii.
{Gorkon floats in a haze of grief.}
{He remembers recoiling in shock at the immensity of the destruction unleashed

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upon the Klaa, and seeing the thick, expanding area of blackness that was
rolling off the coral, as the first fingers of dawn’s light were caressing
the water’s surface. The shock stemmed from Gorkon’s not knowing how to react.
There was the sweeping nausea he experienced upon envisioning the reaction his
brethren would have to the ruination of their precious Klaa. There was also an
unworthy, almost evil glee at the expectation that finally, finally, his
people would be freed from the shackle of this pernicious substance. It would
be painful, it would likely be violent . . . but he would no longer feel
alone.}
{Then he heard the word. The curious, ever- present ques-
tion, “Klaa?” The inquiry came from behind him, and he recognized the voice
even before he turned to see that it was his father, swimming up and looking
with vague interest at
380
PETER DAVID

Gorkon. “Klaa?” he said again, and headed toward the reef, bypassing his son
entirely.}
{
No!
screamed Gorkon, and he intercepted his father, coming between him and the
Reef. But the father fought him like a thing possessed, perhaps realizing on
some level that the Klaa was threatened. Gorkon held on valiantly, but he
could not stand against his father’s greater strength. His fa-
ther broke free of Gorkon’s grasp, and when Gorkon lunged at him once more to
hold him back, his father swung his feet around and kicked squarely into
Gorkon’s head. Gorkon tum-
bled backward, tried to right himself, called his father’s name.
His father ignored him, threw himself against the widening black pool, trying
to get to the Klaa. Gorkon begged, pleaded with his father to forsake the
Klaa, to come back to him, but as near as he could tell, none of his pleas
came close to get-
ting through.}
{Then came the rumble behind him, which warned him the great Gate was being
lowered. He hesitated only a heart-
beat, torn between fealty to a father who didn’t even know him, and a desire
not to be caught at the scene of the disas-
ter, spurred by his guilty awareness of just exactly had tran-
spired at the Reef this eve ning.}
{He turned his back to his father and swam like the de vil for the exit. He
angled down, down, and sped under the gate just as it slammed into its place
on the ocean bed.}
{Now he floats, swathed in misery and mourning. He knows that there is much
more to do. He knows the next steps he must take. He knows that if the moment
is to be his, he must seize it now, aggressively. Yet never has he so wished
for the sweet oblivion of Klaa that others bask in, so that it would numb the
pain he feels for the father who, to the best of his knowledge, didn’t even
remember his name.}
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
381

THE UNDERGROUND
i.
“Dead end!”
It was Zerena Foux, sitting foremost forward in the Truller, who sounded the
alarm. She was barely able to see anything as the walls of the high- speed
corridor hurtled past them.
And then, through squinting eyes, she saw the end of the tunnel in the

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distance. There was nothing but a solid block of rock at the end, with no
warning of any kind. There were tun-
nels leading off in a T-formation to either side, but the track didn’t head
there. Perhaps the Trulls who routinely made use of these mad conveyances knew
their way around the tunnels sufficiently to be wary of such termination, but
the Bottom
Feeders were new to the “art” of Trulling. Considering what was waiting for
them no more than a few seconds down the way, they weren’t going to have the
opportunity to gain much experience at it.
“Dead end!”
she screamed once more.
“Gant! Make it stop!”
“No idea how!”
“Leap out! Everybody leap out
—
!”
“We’ll be torn to shreds, Mother!”
Karsen yelled back.
“This should be interesting,”
said Mingo, five seconds before the Truller was going to slam into the wall.
Four seconds before the impact, there was suddenly the loud hissing of air,
and the Trull car impossibly began to slow. Zerena knew of a certainty that it
was simply impossi-
ble for the car to slow enough to avoid a collision.
And yet, with each passing second, the car’s speed re-
duced by half and then half again, and the result was that the car bumped
harmlessly against the far wall with the gentlest of taps.

Zerena sagged back against someone and realized it was
Jepp, but at that moment she didn’t especially care. “Son of a bitch,” she
breathed, her head spinning. She closed her eyes, having to make an adjustment
to the fact that the world was no longer whizzing past her at breakneck speed.
“Is everyone all right?”
“Can we do that again!?” Jepp asked eagerly.
“Gods, we should have fed her to the Ocular when we had the chance,” Zerena
muttered. “Karsen?”
“I’m fine.”
“Mingo?”
“I think I left my stomach several miles back, but other than that . . .” said
Mingo, climbing out of the car.
“Gant . . . of course, you’re all right,” she said before he could reply.
“You’re a lump of jelly riding inside someone else’s body. Rafe?”
No answer.
“Rafe Kestor?” She turned around, seized with the fear that he had, in all the
insanity, either been left behind or—
even worse—fallen out. The others looked behind them-
selves and Mingo looked down at Rafe Kestor, who was slumped back in the car,
his head lolling to one side.
“Rafe!”
Zerena cried out.
Rafe Kestor’s scaly head snapped forward, and he blinked in confusion. Then he
let out a wide yawn. “Are we there yet?” he inquired.
“He fell asleep,” Mingo said.
“I can see that he fell asleep. Maybe we’re all asleep and we’ll be
fortunate enough to wake up and discover this mad adventure was just a bad
dream,” said Zerena. As she and the others clambered out of the Truller, she
continued, “Now the best thing we can do is put some distance between
ourselves and this area before—”
“We have a problem,” said Mingo, looking around, his nostrils flaring.

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“Yes, exactly, before we have a problem.”
“Mother,” Karsen said, “I think Mingo is saying that we have a problem now.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
383

“What are you—?”
Then she saw it.
In the tunnels on either side, glowering eyes were floating in the darkness.
Slowly Zerena moved forward and she could see there were Trulls on either
side of them, dozens.
They had large stone axes or shining knives or short swords clutched in their
large hands, and Zerena felt a chill in the air that made her tremble
inwardly. Outwardly she main-
tained an air of casual confidence.
She immediately sensed one Trull in par tic u lar, standing to her right,
was some sort of leader. He was watching her intently, his shoulders hunched
and his head lowered as if he was prepared to charge. He was dressed in black
and brown leathers, and he cradled a stone ax with the confi-
dence of someone who knew how to use it.
“I suppose,” she said to him, “you’re wondering what we’re doing here.”
“Kill them,” he told his followers.
“I guess not,” said Zerena Foux, and then the Trulls charged.
ii.
Chancellor Eutok stormed through the tunnels as his squad of warriors hastened
to keep up with him. His shoulders swayed and he had removed his ax from his
sheath on his back. It was an act of greatest restraint that he was not bury-
ing it in the skull of the closest warrior, just to get some of the anger out
of his system.
“Is someone trying to make me look incompetent to the queen? To look like a
fool to my brother? Is that it?” he de-
manded, not really expecting an answer and not receiving one. “How the hell
did a group of damned intruders get down this far?”
“Chancellor, it seems that—” one of the warriors began.
Eutok turned and in one motion punched the warrior in the face. He fell,
unconscious, and Eutok turned back and
384
PETER DAVID

continued walking. “I’ll tell you how,” he said as the other
Trulls stepped right over, or sometimes on, the fallen Trull.
“Because I have people patrolling the outer rim who are thrice- damned
incompetents, that’s how! When this is fin-
ished, I’m going to have every damned one of them re-
placed! We’ve got intruders who elude pursuers, steal a
Truller, are nearly to the damned Hub, and no one can even tell me who or what
it is we’re dealing with! All the early reports contradict each other! I
hear one race is attacking, then it’s another . . . it makes no sense!”
“I believe it’s Bottom Feeders, Chancellor,” said another warrior, and then
his eyes went wide and he clamped his hands over his mouth, clearly wishing he
could snatch back the words.
Eutok whirled to face him, his fist cocked, and then he paused. “Bottom
Feeders? That’s ridiculous. Why do you say that?”
The warrior was so busy flinching that it took him a mo-
ment to realize Eutok hadn’t hit him. He straightened up, cleared his throat,
and said, “Pre . . . precisely because the reports do contradict each other.
The races don’t normally mix. The only time you see any mixture of races is
clans of
Bottom Feeders, who are oftentimes varied individuals sim-

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ply banding together for con ve nience and mutual protection.
That would explain the conflicting reports.”
“Yes. It would,” Eutok admitted. The warrior let out a sigh of relief as Eutok
started walking again, musing aloud, “But it wouldn’t explain the presence
of the Bottom Feeders down here. Bottom Feeders hang about scenes of battles
and pick through the bodies for trinkets and supplies.
They’d have no reason to enter the Underground. There has to be something in
it for them.”
“Does it matter, Chancellor?” asked the warrior, slightly emboldened.
“No,” Eutok told him, “it doesn’t. What’s your name?”
“Klus, Chancellor.”
“Klus. You have potential, Klus.”
“Thank you, Chancellor.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
385

Eutok arrived at the end of the tunnel where it let out onto the Truller
channel that the intruders were supposedly traveling. He took a few steps
back, putting up a hand to in-
dicate that the others should hang back in the darkness.
Across the channel he saw another squad of Trulls, also un-
der his command, massing on the other side. The lead war-
rior there, a Trull named Gurnd, whom Eutok had trained personally, nodded in
ac know ledg ment, indicating they were ready. “You’ve shut down the other
channels?” Eutok called to him.
Gurnd nodded in confirmation. “This is the only place they can possibly end
up.”
“Good. It shouldn’t be long now,” said Eutok.
They waited patiently, and then heard and felt the famil-
iar rumbling in the distance. They also heard loud scream-
ing, which amused Eutok no end. For a moment it reminded him of the times that
his brother, Ulurac, had cried out in their days Trulling together. Ulurac had
never developed a taste for it, whereas for Eutok there was no speed too
fast for him to try and attain.
Had Eutok been able to shut down the safety mecha-
nisms in the Trullers, all the problems would have been solved, of course. The
intruders—Bottom Feeders, if that’s what they were—would have collided at
full speed with the terminus point and that would have been that. But the
Truller system had been built far too meticulously with too much attention
paid to safety. It was impossible for anyone to sabotage it precisely because
it had to be that way for everyone’s sake.
So instead Eutok had to content himself with listening to the intruders’
uncontrolled panic. Then he heard the famil-
iar sound of the emergency air brakes hissing. Gurnd looked as if he was ready
to leap out the second the car bumped to a halt, but Eutok wanted to wait
until they were all out of the car so that there could be no chance of
hidden surprises.
He watched in amazement as an assortment of individu-
als clambered out, looking sick and dizzy. A Laocoon...
386
PETER DAVID

no, two of them, a male and a female. A Minosaur. A Man-
draque. A...
A Trull?
Well, that explained it. There was a traitor working within the Trull
Underground. Eutok recognized him in-
stantly. His name was Crob, and up until this moment, he had been a reasonably

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trusted warrior with a spotless record. But for some reason he had fallen in
with these Bot-
tom Feeders. For a moment Eutok considered the possibil-
ity that Crob was some sort of hostage. But no, he appeared to be mingling
easily with the others and didn’t show the least sign of wanting to get away.
They had turned Crob, that was all. He would die for his disloyalty.
Then Eutok’s eyes widened as he saw what appeared to be a female of a race he
didn’t recognize at first. She was slender enough to be a Piri, and just for a
second, Eutok thought that perhaps it was Clarinda having joined with t h e s
e... t hese misfits. But it took him no time at all to real-
ize he’d erred. Her skin was far too tanned for her to be part of the
subterranean Piri race, nor did she possess any of the other Piri attributes.
C o u l d i t b e...?
A Mort? Was it possible? Were there any left? Eutok had never actually seen
one with his own eyes, merely heard the stories of them.
This was becoming stranger and stranger. The combina-
tion of the apparently traitorous Trull in the company of a
Mort was almost enough to make Eutok spare them. To bring them to the Hub and
question them, learn more of what was going on.
But he quickly quelled the notion. Only strength was an acceptable response to
such a brazen intrusion. Strength and decisive, terminal action.
The Bottom Feeders were talking to each other, and then the Minosaur was
suddenly looking directly in Eutok’s di-
rection. He’d detected them. That wasn’t too great a sur-
prise to Eutok. Minosaurs had an exceptionally sharp sense of smell, even more
so than the Laocoon.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
387

“Mother,” the male Laocoon was telling the female. “I
think Mingo is saying that we have a problem now.”
She demanded in irritation, “What are you—?,” and then she looked at the
tunnels and saw the ambush waiting for them.
Eutok strode forward. The warriors filled in behind him, and, taking his cue
from the Chancellor, Gurnd advanced as well. Eutok wanted the Bottom Feeders
to know just how badly outnumbered they were. He cradled his stone ax, try-
ing to decide which one he was going to annihilate first, and decided it would
be Crob.
“I suppose,” the Laocoon said, “you’re wondering what we’re doing here.”
She had nerve, he had to give her that. Or perhaps she was simply too stupid
to realize just what sort of situation she was in. Well, there was no point in
delaying her learning the folly of their intrusion. “Kill them,” he ordered.
“I guess not,” she said.
The Trulls converged from either side, moving with brisk efficiency, their
weapons at the ready. The Bottom Feeders fell back and brought their weapons
up. The female human was holding a short knife and looked to be the easiest
prey, so consequently Eutok paid her the least attention.
The Minosaur suddenly pawed the ground, snorted loudly, bellowed, “One side!,”
lowered his head and charged. The
Trulls tried to get out of his way, but he plowed through the midst of them,
scattering them right and left.
Eutok was flat on his back and outraged to be treated so. He scrambled to his
feet, shouted, “Take him down!,” and turned to face the others. The two
Laocoon were side by side, block-
ing Eutok’s direct path to the traitor, Crob. Well, if he had to go through
the two Laocoon, then he would do just that.
He roared a challenge, and he was aware that Klus was at his side, sword at
the ready. They ran toward the Laocoon and the female swung her sword, which
Eutok caught with the flat of his blade. He pinned her sword for a moment, but

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wasn’t expecting her to lash out with her hooves. She
388
PETER DAVID

knocked his legs out from under him, and he grunted in an-
noyance even as he snagged the back of her knee with his ax and pulled.
The damned female was nimble. She avoided being pulled off balance, vaulting
over his ax, and she slammed her sword down right where Eutok’s head had been.
But Eutok was too quick, rolling out of the way and scrambling to his feet. He
parried the slash of her sword with the ax handle, and then stepped in quickly
and smashed a fist into her face.
He heard the satisfying crack of her nose breaking under the impact and she
fell back.
Then a war- hammer head swung in out of nowhere. Eu-
tok reacted barely fast enough, ducking just in time to allow his helmet to
catch the brunt of the impact. It was the male
Laocoon who had assaulted him, and Eutok saw that Klus was down, his face a
twisted mass of flesh, clearly having received a vicious blow from the hammer.
“Get away from her!”
yelled the male Laocoon, and sud-
denly he let out what was, to Eutok, a most satisfying cry of pain. The
Laocoon staggered, clutching his side, blood welling up between his fingers.
Klus was there, and even though his face was a ruined mess, he had still
pulled him-
self together enough to rally and bring his short sword slic-
ing across the Laocoon’s torso.
Behind him Eutok heard protesting roars as the Minosaur was dragged down by
the overwhelming force of the attack-
ing Trulls. The Mandraque was shouting defiance, waving his sword in the air
and demanding to know if the Trulls were aware of who they were dealing
with. The traitorous
Crob was inscrutable, as if he didn’t really care who won or lost, and the
female Mort . . .
She caught the wounded male Laocoon as he fell against her. Her eyes were
wide in shock, and she touched the blood that surged from where he’d been
stabbed.
She screamed.
It was a sound such as Eutok had never heard . . . pos -
sibly such as no Trull had ever heard. It was a scream of
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
389

distress and anger and challenge, and went on for what seemed an eternity.
Then the scream halted just as suddenly as it had begun, to be replaced by a
seven- word battle cry that Eutok would hear in his nightmares for the rest
of his days.
“How dare you try to kill him!”
The human’s face was a mask of fury, and she came straight at Klus. He brought
up his sword to run her through and she sidestepped it somehow, as if he was
moving in slow motion, and suddenly she was behind him, one arm wrapped around
his chest, the other around his thick neck, and she twisted it. There was a
shuddering snap as Klus’s neck broke and he went limp against her.
The Laocoon were forgotten as Eutok whipped his ax around to dispatch the
human as quickly as possible. She didn’t hesitate as she shoved Klus’s dead
body right at Eu-
tok. Eutok’s ax head buried itself in Klus’s chest, and before
Eutok could pry it free, she was upon him.
Her fingernails raked his face, and it was a miracle that she didn’t rip the

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eyes out of their sockets. He cried out, staggering, trying to shove her off
him, but even though he was using both hands to do so, she clung to him like a
mad-
woman, shrieking incoherently and tearing at his face, sending pieces of flesh
flying and blood spattering.
“Get it off me!”
he shouted, and there was a thundering of feet toward him. Then she was gone,
and briefly he thought it was because his warriors had pulled her loose.
That was not the case. Instead she was moving like a blur.
Trulls lunged at her to no avail as she sidestepped them, ducked under their
grasps, eluded the thrusts of their swords and the swing of their axes. And
every dodge was then met with a counterstrike of blinding ferocity. She
carried no weapon. She needed none.
Gurnd came at her with a club, slamming it down toward her. She crossed her
arms, intercepting the strike, immobiliz-
ing it and him, and then drove a foot up into his crotch. He let out a gasp of
pain and dropped the club. She caught it with one hand and swung it down so
that it crushed his right foot.
390
PETER DAVID

Two more Trulls were charging her and she flung the club at them, knocking
one flat, causing the other to dodge to one side, barely getting clear. He
then grabbed at her, and she jumped high and spun in the air, kicking the
Trull in the throat. He fell, gasping, and she rebounded off his back and
threw herself at yet another warrior, and he went down be-
neath her assault as well.
“You’ll all die for this!”
she howled, and then as she turned to face new assailants, Eutok yanked out
the sling that hung from his belt. With one fast, practiced motion, he tucked
a stone in the sling, swung it over his head, and let fly.
It was such a small missile that she didn’t see it coming, and it struck the
human female on the side of the head. It opened up a gash and she staggered.
It was all the opening the warriors needed as they came at her from all sides,
over-
whelming her through sheer force of numbers, driving her to the ground.
“Kill them! Kill them!”
howled Eutok.
“That order is countermanded! Capture only! Do not kill them!”
Eutok couldn’t believe it as his brother, Ulurac, emerged from the tunnels,
moving with brisk strides as if he were taking a walk through a party
instead of the scene of a ma-
jor battle. “No killing, I said,” he snapped.
“This is not the business of the Spiritu Sanctum!” Eutok bristled.
Ulurac didn’t slow. Instead he walked right up to Eutok, stopped several feet
away, and snarled, “There are ques-
tions to be answered here. Questions are matters of the mind and of the
spirit. That makes this my province and I
say they live for now.”
“And if I say otherwise?”
In a voice so low that only Eutok could hear him, Ulurac replied, “Then I kill
you where you stand.”
Eutok could feel his pulse pounding in his head, and part of him wanted to
challenge Ulurac to try and make good his word. Instead his lips drew into a
sneer. “And here I thought
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
391

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you reserved killing only for those who trusted you the most.”
Ulurac took a step toward him, but before could attack, Eutok called out,
“Intruders! Make one more move against us and your lives are forfeit. Come
willingly and, for the moment, you live. Your choice,” and he looked defiantly
at
Ulurac, challenging him to gainsay him, and almost hoping that the Bottom
Feeders would instead press the attack, thus sealing their fate.
Instead the female Laocoon called out, “Mingo! Rafe!
Weapons down. Jepp!”
The one called Jepp, the human, was still struggling furi-
ously in the hands of the half dozen or so Trulls it was re-
quiring to restrain her. The Laocoon female went to her, grabbed her face with
both hands, and shouted, “Jepp! He’s going to be okay! Karsen is going to be
all right! But you have to bring yourself back from . . . from wherever you
are at the moment, or they’ll cut you down where you stand! Do you hear me?”
Jepp’s breath hissed through her teeth and then, very gradually, slowed. Her
eyes seemed to clear, a fog lifting from them, and then she managed a nod.
“Release her,” said the female Laocoon.
“I give the orders to my people,” Eutok informed her sharply, and upon the
questioning look from his warriors, nodded. They let go their hold upon her
and she stumbled away from them, paying them no mind and instead running to
the male Laocoon. He was sitting up, using a cloth to stanch the wound in his
side.
“It’s going to be okay, Jepp, I swear,” he told her.
Eutok looked at the body of Klus and then to Jepp.
“You,” he said darkly, “killed one of my warriors.”
Jepp returned Eutok’s glare, her chin upthrust, and she said defiantly, “If
any others of your warriors cares to die, let them hurt Karsen, and I’ll
oblige them.”
“Gods,” murmured the female Laocoon, which was the first indication to Eutok
that she was as surprised at the
Mort’s capacity for destruction as Eutok was.
392
PETER DAVID

“You will come with us,” Ulurac announced. “You will offer no hostile actions.
And then... w e shall see what we shall see.”
“Yes,” Eutok said, staring murderously at his brother, “we shall indeed.”
FIREDRAQUE HALL, PERRIZ
i.
Evanne, the daughter of Nicrominus, had never felt more frustrated with her
lover, Xeris, than she did right at that moment.
She was practically dragging him down the corridor lead-
ing to her father’s study, yanking insistently on his left arm, with several
documents and rolled parchments secured un-
der his right arm. “Evanne, will you be careful?” he whined.
“My arm isn’t like my tail. Pull it off and it won’t grow back, I promise
you.”
Huffing in annoyance, she released his arm and turned to face him, her tail
whipping back and forth as an indicator of her exasperation. “I promised you,
Xeris, ages ago, to love you and watch out for your best interests. And I’m
telling you, it’s in your best interests now to talk to my father about your
theories on the hotstars.”
“I’ve offered my aid to him. He wasn’t interested.”
“As I’ve offered mine, and was likewise rebuffed.” She took his free hand in
both of hers. “But if we go to him to-
gether, we can make him listen to reason.”
“Make the Preceptor listen to reason?”
“It’s not unpre ce dented,” she said dryly.

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“ B u t... ”
“But what?”
“He’ll yell at me,” Xeris said.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
393

Evanne closed her eyes for a moment, steadying herself, and then she forced a
smile, her tongue flicking out and tast-
ing the air. “Xeris,” she told him, “you know my love for you is unwavering.
But sooner or later, you’re going to have to grow a spinal ridge.”
“If it’s sooner or later, can I opt for later?”
“Come on,” she said with a sigh. She stood next to him, her tail wrapping
around his waist, and she started walking again with the reluctant Xeris in
tow.
They arrived at the large double doors that led to the study of Nicrominus,
and Evanne thumped on them with authority. The sound echoed, catching the
attention of ser-
vants who were wandering about on various errands. “See, he’s not
answering,” said Xeris quickly. “We should come back later. Or not at all.
It’s... ”
The left door creaked open and Nicrominus peered out.
Evanne immediately felt a wave of concern. He looked hag-
gard and burdened, not at all well. “Father . . . gods, when was the last time
you slept?” she asked.
“Sleep is for lesser beings,” he archly informed her in such a way that it was
difficult for her to determine if he was joking or not. “I regret, my dear, it
is not a good time... ”
“Actually, Father,” she replied, “it is the ideal time.”
“Really.” He seemed vaguely intrigued by the response.
“I suppose it comes down to one’s definition of ideal. How now, then?”
“Xeris here has been doing research into the hotstars,”
she said. Her tail was behind the small of his back, and she used it to push
him forward a few paces. “He’s developed some fascinating theories that he
strongly feels you should be made aware of.”
“Is that a fact?”
“He was positively insistent.”
“I see.” He looked from Evanne to Xeris, but continued to address her. “And
here I would have thought he would be afraid that I would yell at him.”
Xeris started to reply, but Evanne cut him off. “It never entered his mind,”
she said.
394
PETER DAVID

“Preceptor, please,” said Xeris, “we tru—I truly feel that my theories might
have some merit and could aid you in your own work.”
“Tell me from out there.”
“Out . . . here?” Xeris glanced around. “Not in there?”
“I am affording you a few brief moments of my time, Xeris. Say what you need
to say from there or begone.”
“Father,” Evanne said, “this is really not—”
Now it was Xeris’s turn to interrupt her. “No, Evanne. As the Preceptor
wishes, so shall it be.”
Evanne’s eyes registered her surprise, but she said noth-
i n g... a n d e v e n f e l t a s m a l l s w e l l o f p r i d e...
a s X e r i s p r o -
ceeded to lay out for Nicrominus, as quickly and efficiently as he could, his
theories regarding hotstars. His belief that hotstars were merely conduits,
that there was some sort of

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“Primestar” that was the source of all energy, and that it was to be found in
this plane of existence rather than in the Else-
realms. Nicrominus, standing there in the half- open door-
way, listened and nodded and Xeris grew more confident in his theorizing. He
continued with his notion that the drain-
ing of hotstars might be something occurring back in the
Elserealms as well.
“And then you see the possibilities that presents, Precep-
tor,” he continued.
Something in Nicrominus’s tone changed. “Yes, of course I do,” he said
hurriedly. Whereas before he had seemed genuinely interested, now he appeared
determined to send Xeris on his way as expeditiously as possible. He began to
close the door in Xeris’s face, saying, “You’ve given me much to think on. Now
if you’ll excuse me—”
But Xeris was emboldened by having gotten this far, and he placed a hand
against the door, bracing it, so Nicrominus couldn’t shut it. “If the
Elserealms are threatened, we can turn it to our advantage! Perhaps we can
find a way to shut down the energy flow to the Elserealms altogether!”
“Xeris,” Nicrominus said with growing urgency, “please, enough for now,” and
Evanne was beginning to realize that something was truly wrong.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
395

Xeris, however, did not. “We can turn the tables on our jailers!” His voice
rose with mounting excitement. “If we can regulate energy, we can make them
come begging to us for it! Strike a deal! Or just shut them down completely!
Force them to relocate to this plane, so we’ll be exiled to-
gether! The Overseer, the Travelers, all those who sen-
tenced us here, can be made to suffer as we have suffered!
They can—”
The door to Nicrominus’s chamber suddenly flew open, but it was not at the
behest of Nicrominus. Instead he stum-
bled back and looked apprehensively upward as, standing there, looming over
Nicrominus, was a Traveler. His eyes were invisible within the recesses of his
dark purple hood, yet Evanne felt as if his gaze was boring directly into her
own skull as the Traveler regarded both her and Xeris with silent gravity.
Xeris tried to speak, but nothing but vague sounds emerged from his throat.
Nicrominus sighed heavily. “I tried,” he said.
Slowly the Traveler’s arm rose, his shrouded hand ex-
tended toward Xeris, and suddenly Evanne was standing between the Traveler and
Xeris, her arms spread wide. “He meant nothing by it!” she cried out. “He
was... h e ’ s a n a c -
ademician! A theorist, that’s all! And he was caught up in the excitement of a
theory. He plans no treason, foments no revolt! He’s nothing to you or to the
Overseer, nothing!”
“Actually, he is,” Nicrominus said mildly to the Traveler.
“He’s a source of intriguing ideas. Especially considering that the things
he’s said augment and expand upon some of the theories I’ve postulated.
Theories I’m now prepared to present.”
That prompted the Traveler to freeze in place, his arm poised but no longer
reaching toward Xeris. “Are you?”
said that Traveler in a whispery voice.
“Yes,” said Nicrominus. He squared his shoulders. “But I
will not present them if you harm any of my people. And I
will not present them to you. I will speak only to the Over-
seer.”
396
PETER DAVID

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“Father, are you insane!?”
As if she hadn’t spoken, he repeated firmly, “Only to the
Overseer. You can, of course, try and compel me to speak, but I am fragile and
will not bear up well under physical persuasion, I can assure you of that.”
In the next few moments Evanne felt her life passing be-
fore her eyes as the Traveler remained exactly as he was, staring down at
Nicrominus, his arm still outstretched to-
ward Xeris. She stopped breathing. She was even convinced her heart had ceased
beating.
Then the Traveler lowered his arm and stepped back. The door swung wide as the
Traveler turned his back to them and glided toward the middle of the chamber,
where he paused for an instant, and then moved to the large, stained-
glass window at the far end. He faced it and remained there, as if communing
with the moon.
Immediately Evanne entered the room, going straight to
Nicrominus. She noticed that Xeris was holding back, re-
maining in the hallway, trembling, but she didn’t have time to address that.
“Father, this is madness! You told me the
Travelers had left!”
“I thought they had,” he replied mildly.
“When did this one return?”
“I asked him that when he showed up in my chamber mo-
ments ago. He simply said he had always been here. Truth to tell, I wasn’t
certain he meant ‘always’ as in ‘since their last visit’ or ‘always’ as in,
well . . . always.”
“But why—!”
“He seemed to know that I had come to some conclu-
sions. He also seemed to know that Xeris was going to show up here with his
own theories, which were very worthy, by the way, that was no lie on my
part. If Xeris ever regains consciousness, I must be sure to tell him so.”
“ R e g a i n s...? ”
She looked back at Xeris and, sure enough, his eyes were rolling up into his
head and he was collapsing in a swoon to the floor. She moaned softly.
“Quite a catch, your Xeris,” Nicrominus noted.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
397

Evanne chose to ignore her insensate lover. “Father, you’re playing games with
a Traveler! Issuing ultimatums!
Wanting to be brought before the Overseer?
Wanting to? It’s certain death!”
“You’ll find, Evanne, that the only thing certain about life is death,” he
said gently. “Everything else is up for negotia-
tion.”
“Father, this is—”
The Traveler abruptly turned to them and said, “The
Overseer?”
Nicrominus nodded. “Yes. The Overseer.”
Very slowly, as if he were moving under water, the Trav-
eler gestured for Nicrominus to come toward him. Without hesitation,
Nicrominus did so. Evanne followed him, say-
ing, “Father, you must rethink this... ”
“Must I?”
“Yes! There are too many unknowns!”
“How many is too many?” he asked reasonably. “Is there a certain number of
unknowns that is considered accept-
able?”
“Father, this is too important to play word games with!”

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“I quite agree.”
He drew near the Traveler and then stopped several feet away. His hands draped
behind his back, he waited patiently.
Evanne, for one of the few times in her life, had no idea what to do, and so
did nothing except stand there and wait in agita-
tion.
The silence seemed to drag on for eternity.
“Your wish,” the Traveler finally said, “is granted.”
The stillness of the night was shattered, along with the stained- glass
window, as it blasted inward. Colored shards flew everywhere, as if a rainbow
had exploded within the room. Evanne fell back, shielding her eyes, but
Nicrominus stayed right where he was. And the night air was suddenly filled
with screams from below, shouts of alarm from peo-
ple in the streets.
Something long and black slithered in through the space
398
PETER DAVID

where the window had just been. At first Evanne thought it was a snake, but it
had no head, and then there were two more of them, and then a fourth. They
reached for Nicromi-
nus, who let out a startled gasp, but that was all the ac know -
ledg ment he made of the insanity that was unfolding all around them. He did
not fall back, did not plead for mercy.
He stayed right where he was, and then the . . . the things...
wrapped around him. One encircled his waist, the other two moved in around
either arm, and the fourth surrounded his legs. His walking staff clattered to
the floor.
“Father!”
screamed Evanne. She tried to clamber to her feet, slid on shattered glass,
and suddenly something was holding her back. She let out a shriek, not knowing
who or what had grabbed her.
It was Xeris, who had apparently come to, and he was shouting in her ear,
“Don’t move! Don’t do anything! It’ll get you too!”
“
I don’t care!
I don’t care!”
She struggled in Xeris’s grip and watched helplessly as
Nicrominus was lifted off his feet, through the air, and out the window.
Absurdly, he tossed off a little wave just before he vanished from sight.
“Fathhhhhherrrr!”
she screamed, and her tail whipped up and around and drove itself deep into
the pit of Xeris’s stomach. He gasped, lost his grip on her, and she leaped to
the window. She caught herself on either side before she tumbled out, craned
her long neck around, and looked up-
ward in astonishment.
She had only ever seen them from a distance. But now, gaping at one of the
creatures from relatively close up, she could only stare in mute stupefaction
at its immensity.
It was a Zeffer. Because it was hanging high in the sky, its translucent skin
billowing and shimmering in the breeze, she saw mostly its underside. Its
tendrils were hanging down, too numerous to count, and she couldn’t even
begin to spot the Serabim that was doubtless sitting atop it, con-
trolling it.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
399

Several of the tendrils were still wrapped around Nicromi-

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nus, and they were drawing him upward. He was already lit-
tle more than a speck, giving Evanne some vague idea of just how high the
thing was.
“Bring him back! Bring him back, you bastards!”
Neither the Zeffer nor its unseen rider, naturally, made any reply. Instead
the Zeffer began to move, slowly but distinctly, drifting in a generally
westward direction. The winds seemed to hammer it at first, and it glided too
close to the bell tower. Its tentacles slammed into it, and the bells crashed
as if sounding an alarm. Then the Zeffer got its bearings and angled away from
the Firedraque Hall.
Within seconds it was moving across the Perriz skyline.
Whenever she’d seen Zeffers before, they’d always seemed to move incredibly
slowly, ponderously. It was only now, as close as this one was, that she
realized just how fast the thing really was.
She whirled to face the Traveler, to repeat her pleas that sounded more like
barked orders. But the Traveler wasn’t there. Servants had come rushing in,
and Xeris was stand-
ing there slack- jawed, as stunned by the presence of the
Zeffer as she was.
“Where’s the Traveler?”
she demanded.
Snapped from his inaction by her outcry, Xeris glanced around, looking rather
stupid as he did so. The servants did so as well, although they didn’t have
any idea to whom she was referring.
“I . . . I don’t know,” said Xeris. “I was watching the...
h e m u s t h a v e... ”
Having no patience for him, she turned back to the win-
dow, looking helplessly after the rapidly receding form of the Zeffer. She
could no longer make out her father in the dangling forest of tendrils hanging
below the vast creature, although she did think she could see—just
barely—the vague outlines of a form atop the beast. But she couldn’t make
out any details and then, in moments, she couldn’t see that clearly either.
“Evanne,” Xeris said, putting a hand on her arm, “every-
thing’s going to be—”
400
PETER DAVID

She pulled her arm away from him and hissed in his face, “Do not talk to me.
Ever again.” With that, she turned and stormed out of the room, leaving a
hapless, downcast Xeris staring at the floor.
ii.
Arren Kinklash had been on his way to Firedraque Hall when he, like many
Firedraques all over Perriz, watched in shock and horror as a Zeffer wafted
over the cityscape.
Even from the ground, Arren was able to see Nicrominus dangling in the
tentacles of the thing.
Naturally he felt a moment of pure terror, but he also felt a flash of glee.
Obviously the long hand of the Overseer had scooped up Nicrominus, and there
was every chance that he would never be seen again. This meant a power vacuum
would come into existence, and Arren knew it was his chance to improve his own
standing and position. He felt guilty over that notion, but fortunately
enough, the guilt passed quickly and left no bad aftertaste.
He ran toward the great hall, and then slowed as he saw something that caused
a faint buzz of concern. Apparently the Zeffer had clipped the bell tower in
passing; a piece of the upper section had been shattered. He knew that the
bell tower was one of Norda’s favorite hideaways, and he was ter-
rified by the thought that she might have been injured.
All thoughts of po liti cal opportunities faded in the face of possible
danger to his sister.

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Arren began to move at a brisk walk, but moments later that was insufficient
and he was going at a full- out run.
There was a growing crowd at the doors of the great hall, and those within
were trying their best to close it against the pushing and shoving of the mob,
demanding to know what was happening. Without slowing down, Arren leaped onto
the shoulders and heads of the crowd and sprinted across them. There were
shouts of “Hey!” and “Stop that!”
and several grabbed at him. Arren made his way past them
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
401

all and leaped through the doors just as they slammed shut.
He found himself staring at Nicrominus’s daughter and a couple of retainers.
Evanne started to demand what he was doing there, but Arren ignored her.
Instead he ran past her, heading straight for the stairs that led to the bell
tower.
Evanne’s shouts followed him. He quickly outdistanced them as he sprinted up
the stairs. In the past, he had always displayed the utmost caution in
visiting Norda, knowing that having her perpetually hiding in the great hall
was invaluable. Now he tossed caution aside. By the time he was halfway up, he
was shouting her name. There was no response; nothing except the hollow echo
of his own voice.
By the time he got to the top of the tower, his lungs aching, he was convinced
that he was going to find her crushed corpse lying in a heap to one side.
“Norda!”
he shouted as he looked around frantically. “If you’re hiding, this isn’t the
time! You need to come out!
Come out now! Now!”
Nothing. No response.
The wind whistled in his face, and his mind raced desper-
ately, trying to figure out where she might have gotten to.
Then his nostrils flared. He smelled blood.
He turned and saw it. It was on the wall, just under the sec-
tion that had been broken away. He was certain the moment he saw it that it
was Norda’s. Nor was it an accidental spilling of blood. One of her bracelets
was lying on the ground with blood on the edge. Apparently she had used the
sharp edge to slice open some part of her body—her palm, perhaps—to draw
blood so that she could create the image on the wall.
She had scrawled three simple lines to form an arrow, and the arrow was
pointing straight up.
He looked up, but all he saw was the Zeffer drifting away into the distance.
“I don’t . . .” he started to say, shaking his head, as if he were talking to
her.
Then he realized, and he began to scream her name in to-
tal panic. But she was too far away to hear.
402
PETER DAVID

THE COUNTRY OF FEEND
The funeral pyre upon which Merrih’s body lay blazed hot and high, a black
plume of smoke twisting skyward and throwing a haze over the pale moon. The
mourning and lamentations of the Ocular were almost deafening, and yet
Nagel—who stood in the center of the great lawn, staring at his niece’s body
as the flames devoured it—heard none of it. He might as well have been
alone.
He had spoken to other Ocular since Merrih died. He had interacted with them,
barked orders, fought to keep his grief in check. All these had been things
that the other Ocular had observed themselves. But inside...

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Inside, he was dead.
Inside, he had not advanced beyond that horrible mo-
ment when he had released the arrow, seen it speed through the air, and then
watched in stunned shock as Merrih had stood up, her back to him, between the
deadly missile and its intended target. Although the entire incident had occu-
pied mere seconds, at the time—and in all the subsequent rewinding of it in
his mind—time seemed to stretch out in-
finitely. Certainly he’d had all the time in the world to cry out a warning.
At that instant, he even felt as if he could have outsped the arrow in its
flight and knocked Merrih out of the way himself.
Instead he had stood there, captured in a moment of ter-
ror like a fly locked in amber, and watched it happen over and over again.
When his guardsmen had come running up to him, when they had found Merrih’s
dead body, what had he done?
He had blamed it on the Piri.
Taking no responsibility, he had told them that the Piri had slain Merrih.
That he had found her this way. So grief-
stricken were they that none of them ever noticed the

bloodstained arrow that Nagel had quickly disposed of be-
neath a bush.
He could feel his soul shredding, sin built upon sin. But even as he did, he
desperately tried to rationalize it. Had the
Piri not, after all, been the ones who took Merrih from him in the first
place? And look what they had done to her. That pale shell of an Ocular was
barely recognizable as Merrih.
T h e t r u t h...
... t h e t r u t h...
( T h e t r u t h... y o u ’ v e fi n a l l y b e e n p u n i s h e d...
f o r w h a t y o u d i d w i t h y o u r s i s t e r... f o r w h o M
e r r i h i s... w h a t s h e t r u l y i s... w a s... t o y o u...
t h e gods abominated her, abominated you, and she paid for that, she... )
. . . the truth, as he began to construct it for himself, was that what had
happened in the forest was a blessing. Per-
haps even the hand of the gods themselves. Why, just look-
ing at Merrih, it was obvious the Piri had made her like them. That the reason
she and another Piri had shown up in the forest was because they were
planning to attack others of the Ocular. Attack them, feed upon them, kill
them.
Nagel’s killing of his
( d a u g h t e r... d a u g h t e r , y o u s i c k monster, you... )
. . . niece, as tragic as it was, was actually the best thing for all
concerned. It was an aggressive action by him, Nagel, king of the Ocular, that
protected his people from further assault. And...
... a n d...
... a n d...
The word hung in his mind in the same way that the smoke hung in the air. In
the same way that the anticipation of his people hung in the air, waiting for
him to speak, to address them with words of comfort and consolation, to tell
them what in the Damned World they were going to do now.
... a n d... I must continue to be aggressive. Yes. I can-
not wait for Zerena Foux’s clan to return, presuming they even do. I cannot
simply accept what has occurred. I must take steps. Drastic steps. Now.
404
PETER DAVID

And the words that Phemus had said to him, a seeming eternity ago, came back
to him.

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As Merrih burned, Nagel turned to his people and sur-
veyed them with a steely gaze. There was still weeping and sniffling, but
slowly it tapered off as they became aware their king was watching them,
obviously preparing to say some-
thing of great import. He could see how they were watching him, with a
mixture of fear and anger. Fear for what was go-
ing to happen next, and anger that he had failed to protect even his own flesh
and blood from the ravages of the Piri. If he could not protect his own, what
chance did he have of protecting theirs?
He looked at the children who were gazing up at him.
And he knew.
“You wish to leave, don’t you,” he suddenly said, his voice ringing out. “Oh,
at first there were cries of ‘Vengeance’
and ‘Death to the Piri in the name of Merrih.’ But now, with even this brief
passage of time, the fire within your vows has cooled. Instead you wish to
leave Feend. You are saying to yourselves,” and he began to stride around the
lawn, tak-
ing in the entirety of the Ocular population with a sweep of his arm, “that
our ancestral home is no longer worth the risk. That the Piri will keep
coming. That we cannot win against them . . . and so we should leave instead.
Who among you believes that? Raise your hands, show me.”
A number did so, but only a few. Nagel had no doubt that far more believed it,
but were afraid to admit to it. For such as those, he had no patience.
He nodded in ac know ledg ment of those who had dis-
played their desire to leave, and they lowered their hands.
“You live in fear,” he said. “You wake up to it, eat with it, sleep with it.
You stink of it.” He made no attempt to hide his disgust. “We stride the
Damned World as giants, and yet you fear the ground beneath your feet. You
fear the Piri . . .
or so you think. But I will show you what you truly fear.
You,” and he pointed to one Ocular at random. “Your name is Tansin, is it
not?”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
405

“Tansin, yes, my king.”
“Tansin... y o u see the Ocular standing next to you?”
Tansin stared at the giant to whom Nagel was pointing.
“Yes, my king,” he said, not quite understanding what it was
Nagel wanted. “I see him.”
“Tansin... a t t ack him.”
The Ocular next to Tansin blanched, and Tansin looked uncomprehendingly at
Nagel. “Pardon, my king?”
“You heard me. Attack him.” Nagel took a few steps to-
ward him, clenching his fists and shaking them. “Throw him down. Pummel him.
Do what ever you can to lay him low. On my order. Now.”
Bewildered looks passed between all the Ocular now.
Tansin was staying right where he was, his arms at his side, his eye all but
bugging out of his face. “But . . . but I don’t un-
derstand, my king,” Tansin stammered. “He has done nothing to me. He is my
neighbor. It is against our laws to assault—”
“It is at my command and I pardon you in advance. At-
tack him.”
“My king, I . . . it makes no sense,” Tansin protested.
“ W h y...? ”
Nagel saw that Phemus, standing nearby, was looking at him with as much
confusion as anyone else there. Now other
Ocular were also voicing their bafflement, asking what was happening, or
murmuring to one another that the king had obviously lost his mind owing to

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his im mense grief.
Part of him wondered if they were right. And yet he knew, with greater
conviction than he had ever known any-
thing before, that he knew precisely what he was doing.
Abruptly he turned on his heel and faced another Ocu-
lar . . . this one a youngster. The youngster looked up at the king with awe.
“You,” he said to the youngster. “Who’s that standing next to you?”
“My best friend,” said the young Ocular, indicating a slightly shorter
youngster standing next to him.
“Hit him. As hard as you can. Knock him down. Beat him to a pulp.”
406
PETER DAVID

The young Ocular gulped ner vous ly. “But . . . won’t I get in trouble?”
“On my word as your king, you will not,” Nagel assured him. “Now hit him.”
Without hesitation, the youngster turned and punched his best friend in the
mouth. His best friend went down, and the youngster leaped upon him,
endeavoring to continue the pummeling. But the erstwhile victim savagely
fought back, defending himself with impressive ferocity.
The parents of both young males involved in the fracas started to move to
break them up, but Nagel put out a hand imperiously, fixed an angry scowl upon
them, and they stopped where they were. Nagel then allowed the battle to
continue for several moments before he called out, “All right! Halt! This
instant! On your feet!”
Immediately the two youngsters rolled off each other and stood up. The young
Ocular whom Nagel had ordered to at-
tack his friend had a bloody nose and a swelling around the bottom of his eye.
The other youngster had a split lip and various bruises on his arms. Neither,
however, seemed ex-
cessively damaged beyond that.
“The problem,” Nagel continued, raising his voice above the increasingly
fierce crackling of the funeral pyre, “is not the savagery of our opponent!
The problem is the lack of savagery in us! Somewhere in the transition from
child to adult, we have been losing touch with the greatness within us! The
joy of battle, the sheer thrill of crushing an enemy beneath our feet or
between our fingers!
“The Piri, individually, are smaller than our children!
More fragile! Weaker! And yet we cower at the sight of their latest travesty,”
and he pointed at Merrih’s burning body, “and think of leaving our homes. Fie
upon that! Fie, I say!
“Instead I will tell you what we are going to do. The youth of the Ocular will
be drafted into the ser vice of our people! Our finest warriors will coach
them and train them for a very specific mission: to invade the warrens of the
Piri and exterminate them once and for all!”
Immediately shouts of confusion and protest rose up from
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
407

the Ocular populace. Females clutched their children close to them, males
started shouting that it was unheard of, unac-
ceptable. A number of them advanced upon Nagel, not as an attack, but in order
to make their protests heard.
“Quiet!”
thundered Nagel. He grabbed a burning limb from the pyre and swung the torch
around himself. The on-
coming Ocular flinched back, squinting, shielding their eyes against the
blinding flame. “This is not unpre ce dented!
Previous generations of Ocular have gladly pressed their c h i l d r e n i n

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t o s e r v i c e... a n d f o r f a r l ess worthy causes than this!
You have grown soft! Complacent! You have lost your thirst for battle. But it
is not lost in our young ones. They hunger for it, yearn for it! We have
merely to train them, point them toward the target, and let them go! The
narrow tunnels in which the Piri hide will not deter our young Ocu-
lar. They will exterminate all of those parasitic monsters that they
encounter.”
“But what if they fail?” cried out one Ocular, and another took up the cry
with “We could lose them all! We could wind up with nothing!”
“We have nothing now
!” declared Nagel. “We have no pride! No security! No fire in our bellies! Day
is as night to me, and I see clearly in both. You must be able to see clearly
in at least one. We must restore what is rightfully ours! We will know peace
in our lifetimes! Tomorrow all of you will send any youngster capable of
wielding a weapon to the castle, where training will commence! When they have
been trained to my satisfaction... t hen will begin the as-
sault on the Piri. Then, my subjects, will your children do us all proud.
“Now go! Return to your homes! I wish to be alone with
Merrih, to pray to the gods for strength, and to let her spirit know that she
will be avenged.
“Go, I said. That is an order from your king!”
Nagel turned his back to them, keeping his ears sharp, aware that—for all he
knew—someone might run up behind him and try to drive a knife into him. That,
however, did not occur, and he listened as they shambled off into the dark-
408
PETER DAVID

ness. There were mutterings, and angry comments, but also others were
overheard saying things such as “Something must be done! Are we giants or are
we men?”
Eventually he was alone, and then he heard soft footsteps approaching him. He
knew who it was without having to turn to look. “Are you here, Phemus, to
ask me if I am mad as well?”
Phemus stepped in next to him. “No, my king,” he said cautiously. “But . . .
you must know that some of your peo-
ple are unhappy. Many of them.”
“They will be happy when they can take pride in them-
selves. They’ve been missing it for so long, they don’t even know it’s gone.”
“That’s as may be, my king, but—”
“There is no ‘but,’ honored Phemus,” Nagel told him, still without looking at
him. “Especially when one considers it was your idea.”
“My idea?” Phemus gasped. “But . . . no! Wait, my king, there’s been some
mistake. I was speaking of convincing the Mandraques to send their youngsters
into battle on our behalf.”
“You mentioned sending our own in as well.”
“As an example of an unacceptable alternative!”
“In that case, honored Phemus,” said Nagel, turning his glowering eye upon his
chief advisor, “I strongly suggest you start accepting it, and actively
backing it. Because I am going to be issuing a royal proclamation tomorrow
formaliz-
ing the new draft, and I fully intend to state that it is by my order, but as
per your suggestion. We are in this together, honored Phemus, and if you are
concerned for my safety over our people’s reaction to this new decree, then
you’d do well to worry for your own.” He noted with satisfaction Phe-
mus’s deep gulp, and then said, “This can and will work, and
I suggest you strive mightily to help make it work. Is there anything else?”
Phemus gulped once more and then managed to say, “No, my king. Nothing
else.”
“Good,” said Nagel. “Now, if you’ll excuse us... ”

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DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
409

Phemus nodded and backed away, leaving Nagel kneeling before Merrih’s rapidly
disintegrating body and apologizing to her for failing to rescue her from the
Piri’s vicious murder of her. His own complicity in her death was completely
for-
gotten as his fragile mind labored to hold itself together against greater
odds than more generous gods would have afforded him.
UNDERGROUND, THE HUB
i.
The room the Bottom Feeders had been led to couldn’t re-
ally be called a “room.” It was just another chamber in the subterranean world
of the Trulls, with no furnishings. Nev-
ertheless Jepp was doing her best to make Karsen as com-
fortable as possible. She was relieved to discover that the wound he had
sustained was not as bad as she had first thought; the weapon appeared to have
grazed his ribs and drawn a good deal of blood, but no vital organs had been
punctured and she had managed to get the bleeding to stop by just applying
some pressure.
She noticed, though, that the others were keeping a dis-
tance from her, and Karsen was looking at her warily, even as she ban daged
him with supplies grudgingly accorded her by the Trulls at the instruction of
that one, Ulurac, the “Spiritu
Sanctum” (what ever that was). “Is something wrong?” she asked at last.
“You’re all . . . staring at me like you’ve never seen me before.”
The others exchanged glances and then Zerena said, “How did you do that?”
“It wasn’t difficult. I just pushed hard against the wound l i k e s o... ”
410
PETER DAVID

“No, not that, you—” Zerena caught herself before she got too angry.
It was Mingo who picked up what Zerena had started to say. “You attacked the
Trulls.”
“They attacked us first.” Jepp was instantly contrite. “Did
I do wrong?”
“No! It’s not a matter of right or wrong,” said Mingo, “it w a s... J epp,
you were tearing into them. You almost single- handedly had them on the run
for a moment there. I
don’t think anyone here thought you remotely capable of such action. I . . .
suppose we’re wondering how you did it.”
“And why you’re the way you are,” added Zerena.
“The way I am?” Jepp had no idea what Zerena was talk-
ing about. “What way is that?”
Zerena approached her, hunkering down so she was at eye level with her. “Why
in the name of all the gods are you so deferential, so timid, so . . . so
afraid of causing any sort of offense and so eager to do what ever you’re
told, when you’re always capable of handling yourself in that way?”
“I’m not.”
“You’re not what?”
“Always capable of it,” said Jepp. “I barely even remem-
ber what I did earlier.”
Zerena looked in confusion to Karsen, who simply shrugged. “What are you
talking about? If someone attacks you, can you fight back?”
“No.”
“Yes, you can! Why are you saying ‘no’? It makes no—”
“It’s Karsen.” It was Rafe Kestor who spoke. He was standing at the far end of
the chamber, leaning against the wall, eyeing Jepp with calm certainty and

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surprising lucid-
ity. “It’s because Karsen was attacked, wasn’t it?”
She nodded.
“And you,” he shifted his gaze to Karsen. “She pleasured you, didn’t she?”
Karsen looked distinctly uncomfortable as Zerena stared
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
411

at him. Running his fingers through his hair, he said reluc-
tantly, “I . . . don’t see that that’s anyone’s busin—”
Almost as one, the Bottom Feeders chorused in mutual realization, “She
pleasured him.”
“Karsen,” Zerena said with a gentleness that surprised
Jepp. “That development isn’t entirely unexpected. When I
allowed her to stay, I . . . but . . .” She shook it off abruptly, trying to
regain her normal borderline- angry deportment.
“Kestor, why should that make a difference?”
“It makes a difference,” said Kestor, “because a Plea-
surer, which is what she is, is more than just a sex toy.”
“I’m so relieved,” Jepp said sincerely.
Rafe Kestor ignored her. “She’s a par tic u lar breed of human. A Pleasurer
only has one master at a time. When she pleasures him, she bonds with him. And
that bonding releases certain... t e n dencies... d e f ensive tendencies...
when her bondmate is threatened. Karsen... w h e r e d i d you find her?”
“On the remains of a battlefield.”
“Bodies all around her?”
“Yes. Killed in battle with the Greatness... ”
“Not all of them, I’ll warrant. Were they all killed the same way?”
Karsen thought about it. “No. No, I remember thinking about the variety of
ways that the Greatness had managed to—”
Then his voice trailed off and he looked at Jepp, his eyes widening.
And Jepp’s own thoughts flew back to that time on the battlefield. Recalling
the dizzying array of images assault-
i n g h e r r e c o l l e c t i o n...
blood flying, teeth tearing and rip-
ping, terrifying and unrecognizable roars of defiance and death, death all
around her
...
“Oh,” she said, as if she had just recalled where she’d misplaced a necklace.
“Yes. I . . . suppose I killed a number of them.”
Karsen tried to speak but could barely get any words out.
“You
...
?”
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PETER DAVID

“They were attacking the Greatness,” she told him matter-
of- factly. “He was my bondmate. But he died, despite my best efforts, and
then you found me, and now you’ve become my bondmate.”
“And if you are attacked, threatened in any real way,”
said Rafe Kestor, “she will enter a sort of . . . of berserker state. And gods
help your enemies then.”
“And you knew this?” Karsen asked Jepp in astonish-
ment. “You knew you were capable of such mass destruc-
tion?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”

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“You didn’t ask,” she said primly. “I was always taught never to speak unless
spoken to, and never give answers un-
less asked.”
For a long moment no one said anything...
And then Zerena Foux burst out laughing.
It was a very odd sound, a sort of nasal braying, and Jepp had never heard
anything quite like it before. But there it was, Zerena’s unbridled laughter,
and she was clutching her stomach and continuing to laugh. To Jepp’s surprise,
one by one, each of the Bottom Feeders joined in... e v e n Gant, still in
the body of his Trull host, although his reaction was more of an amused
chuckle than anything else.
“May I ask what’s so funny?” inquired Jepp, eager to join in on the joke.
“I was wondering much the same,” came a rough voice.
The Trull called Eutok was standing in the entrance, and there were several
warriors in his company.
“Nothing,” Zerena said stiffly.
“Good. The queen will see you now. And I warn you: If you make the slightest
move against her, you will die where you stand.”
“Personally,” said Karsen, indicating Jepp, “I’m planning to stand near her.
”
Jepp felt vaguely flattered by that.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
413

ii.
Queen Eurella had not known what to expect when she had heard of the intruders
who had penetrated deep into the stronghold of the Trulls, but the motley crew
brought before her was not it at all.
Ulurac was standing next to her, looking stiff and formal.
She was not entirely certain why he’d felt the need to bring the intruders
before her. Simply disposing of them in com-
bat was the appropriate way to handle it, and she had told him as much.
“With all respect, Highness,” he’d said to her in a most formal manner, “if
one simply addresses the symptom, one cannot comprehend the root nature of the
illness. Do these intruders act alone? Or do they represent the first of many
such incursions? If the latter, then the more we learn of them, the better we
can prepare ourselves.”
To her own surprise, she found the argument convincing.
So it was that not only did she not condemn Ulurac for cur-
tailing Eutok’s efforts to kill the intruders, but she agreed to see them for
herself, her curiosity overcoming her more bloodthirsty instincts.
Naturally the one who drew her immediate attention was
Crob, a perfectly harmless Trull who, for some reason, seemed to have thrown
in with these invaders. She studied them suspiciously as they were led in,
and Ulurac called out, “On bended knee before the queen of the Underground,
intruders!”
Obviously with great reluctance, each of the Bottom
Feeders went down to one knee. The aged Mandraque seemed the least willing,
but the female Laocoon muttered to him and, what ever it was she said to him,
it got him to co-
operate.
Only one of them remained standing: Crob. He stood there eyeing Eurella, and
when Ulurac shouted, “Crob!
Down! Now!,” he still remained standing.
Eutok, apparently eager to back up his brother’s angry
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PETER DAVID

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command, started toward Crob, pulling out his ax as he went, but Eurella stood
and put out a preemptory hand. Eu-
tok stopped where he was and, as the assembled Trulls let out a startled gasp,
Eurella stepped down from her throne and walked slowly toward Crob. He never
lowered his gaze and, indeed, seemed to regard her with distant disdain. She
stopped several feet away from him, dissecting him with her gaze.
“This is not Crob,” she said at last. “This is a Phey.”
Crob’s only response was the startled raising of an eye-
brow. There were rumbles of confusion among the Trulls, but Eurella
continued, “I’ve met a few Phey in my time.
There are no creatures walking the Damned World more arrogant than they, with
the possible exception of Firedraques.
But no Firedraques possess the ability to change their ap-
pearance, and although I’ve never witnessed it myself, this is most certainly
an example of it. Am I wrong?”
Crob hesitated only a moment, then bowed slightly at the waist. “You are not
wrong, Highness.”
“Thought so. Never met the Phey who could keep from boasting about himself. As
a race, they don’t give a damn about anyone or anything but their own egos.
Your name.”
“I have many. Currently, it is ‘Gant.’”
“‘Gant.’ And how came you, Gant, to be traveling with such as they?” She gave
a disdainful glance toward the Bot-
tom Feeders. “A bit low in rank, are they not, to be associat-
ing with one so self- revered as a Phey.”
“If you know my people as well as you say, Highness, then you know we tend to
keep our secrets to ourselves,” he said.
Eurella “harrumph”ed at that, then said, “The rest of your
‘associates’ have names? Or is that, too, a secret to be kept to yourself?”
Gant shook his head and then rattled off their names, pointing to each as he
did so. They remained on their knees, bowing their heads slightly in turn as
he introduced them.
Finally Eurella said, “Up. Stand. I’m tired of looking at the tops of your
heads.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
415

They stood upon her command and then waited.
Eurella drummed her fingers on the arm of her throne, and then said, “You’re
insane to come down here. You’ve realized that by now, I take it.”
The Bottom Feeders remained silent, and then the one who’d been called Zerena
Foux took a step forward and said, “Actually, Highness, some of us realized it
before we started.” She fired an annoyed look at the other Laocoon.
“Others of us had other ideas.”
Letting out a loud guffaw, Eurella said, “This one is your son, isn’t he?”
“Yes, Highness.”
“I thought so. Only a mother could regard a son with such scorn.” She looked
significantly at Ulurac and at Eu-
tok, but neither of them returned it. Settling back in her throne, Eurella
said, “Speak to me, then, mother- in- scorn.
For what insane reason did you foolishly brave our tun-
nels?”
“The king of the Ocular traded upon a debt of honor owed him,” said Zerena.
“A debt of honor. Interesting. Bottom Feeders concern themselves with debts of
honor?”
“It appears that, in recent days, we do, yes,” Zerena said.
“I understand your skepticism, Highness. I can scarce credit it myself.”
“And yet, here we all are.” Eurella was beginning to be pleased that she had
agreed to meet with this misbegotten group of adventurers. It was providing

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more amusement than she would have thought possible. “Nagel, king of the
Ocular. He sent word asking for my aid against the Piri, due to the tragic
loss of his niece. He wished to exterminate them.”
“He still does,” said Zerena.
“I refused him aid. I told him we would not cooperate in genocide, but instead
only serve to maintain the balance of power.”
“Yes.”
“And he sent you to plead his case otherwise?”
416
PETER DAVID

“No.” It was Gant who spoke up now. “He sent us to steal something from you
that would accomplish his goal. The
Orb of the Trinity.”
There was silence, then, a deathly silence. Eurella knew all too well why.
“You dare,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “You dare even to
speak of it?”
“You said it yourself, Highness. The arrogance of my people is unbounded.”
Eurella trembled with rage over his flippant audacity, so much so that she
could barely string a sentence together.
“The most sacred relic... t h e b l essed... p assed down...
you dare?”
“Again, Highness, as you said—”
“Shut up!”
shouted Eurella, on her feet. “You seriously thought that you could take it
from me? My most perfect possession? And give it over to the grimy hands of
the Ocu-
lar? Do you even know what it would unleash?”
Karsen spoke up. “Some sort of light, is what Nagel gave u s t o u n d e r s
t a n d... ”
“You understand nothing. Nagel understands nothing.
You have no comprehension, none, of what the unleashed
Trinity Orb can accomplish.”
“If it will wipe out the Piri,” said Karsen, “that is more or less all that
matters as far as Nagel is concerned.”
“Karsen is right,” Zerena said. “For once, Highness, we are undertaking an
endeavor that does not profit us. What-
ever this power of yours is you guard, we do not want it for ourselves. We
want it for someone else.”
“Someone to whom you owe a debt of honor,” Eurella said sarcastically.
The human, Jepp, spoke up. Sounding just a bit too chipper, she said, “If it
means anything, he also said he would hunt us down, kill us, and eat us if he
didn’t get what he wanted.”
“Did he?”
“Yes,” said the Minosaur, Mingo. “You see the dilemma we were presented
with, O mighty one. Death by being set upon and devoured by giants, or death
by being set upon a n d... what ever . . . by ‘not giants.’”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
417

“I understand your dilemma,” said Eurella with mock sympathy. “It has touched
my withered heart. Truly, you have a difficult decision. But do not despair,
because, fortu-
nately, I am a ruler and thus accustomed to making difficult decisions. So I
have decided that, for your crimes, you will be executed immediately.”
Eutok snapped his fingers and the Trulls advanced, their weapons at the ready,
upon the weaponless Bottom Feeders.
The Bottom Feeders drew toward one another, forming a t i g h t c i r c l

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e... a l l s a v e Gant, who remained precisely where he was.
“I very much wish you had not done that, Highness,”
Gant said.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because then I would not have had to do this.”
And suddenly Gant’s mouth . . . or, more accurately, C r o b ’ s m o u t
h... opened. Eurella leaned forward, looking confused, for there was some
sort of thick goo bubbling in his mouth. “What in the Damned World is that?”
she demanded.
That was the last thing she remembered before the gunk, as if it had a life of
her own, leaped toward her, enveloping her face. Automatically she tried to
let out a scream and suddenly it was down her throat, in her eyes and ears,
and all went black.
iii.
“No one move!”
shouted Eutok. It was the most unneces-
sary order he had ever given, for every Trull there was frozen in shock at
what he was witnessing.
The queen’s head snapped back and forth, and she stag-
gered and fell against the throne, clutching it as she endeav-
ored to gain her footing. Crob lay insensate upon the floor, making gurgling
noises but otherwise not contributing any-
thing to the proceedings.
And then, slowly, Eurella lifted her head and smiled in a sardonic manner that
was most unlike the queen.
418
PETER DAVID

“All right,” said Gant, speaking through her voice. “Now things have gotten
interesting.”
“Blasphemy!”
Ulurac howled.
“Unhand the queen, you
Phey bastard, now!”
“Calmly, Trull,” replied “Queen Gant.” “Your shouting is hurting your mother’s
delicate ears.”
Eutok did not hesitate. Before anyone could react, he grabbed Jepp from behind
and brought a knife to her throat. “Get out of our mother, shapeshifter, or
this one dies.”
“Then she dies,” Gant said indifferently. “Why should you think her life would
be of any consequence to me? That any of theirs would be? You heard your
mother. Phey care only about ourselves. What sort of son would you be to ac-
cuse your mother of lying?”
Eutok paused, then rallied. “Very well! Then her blood is on your hands!” and
he started to put the point of the knife against Jepp’s throat.
“And your mother’s blood is on yours,” Gant replied.
“Eutok, stay your hand!” commanded Ulurac.
But Eutok had already done so. His eyes narrowing in suspicion, he demanded,
“What are you talking about, Phey?”
“My, you’re slow to pick up on things, aren’t you,” Gant said in a pitying
tone. “Open your eyes. I’ve assumed con-
trol of the queen. Her survival depends entirely upon my goodwill. At the
moment, I’m wrapped around her brain...
her heart and lungs. At the merest thought, I could contract upon them and
crush them to pulp. While you’re standing there helpless, I could kill your
queen in a dozen different w a y s... a l t h o u gh, honestly, do I really
require more than one way?”
“You would not dare!” said Eutok.
“Of course I would. I’ve nothing to lose.”

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“Except their lives,” and Eutok indicated the Bottom
Feeders.
“You’ve already said they’re forfeit anyway, so really, the result would be
the same, wouldn’t it? They die if I do noth-
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
419

ing, or they die if I kill your queen. I might as well kill your queen so at
least I can feel I had a productive day.”
“Eutok!” Ulurac said sharply, before his brother could say anything else.
Eutok fell silent, and Ulurac turned to Gant.
“What do you want?”
“I believe the purpose of our quest has already been made clear to you,” Gant
replied easily. “Give us the Orb of the
Trinity.”
“You’re insane.”
“No, I’m really not.”
“It is the queen’s greatest trea sure.”
“Then I promise you, she will not live to enjoy it. So your choice is that she
lives without it, or she doesn’t live with it.
Again, either way is acceptable to me.”
There was a long silence then, as Ulurac clearly took the mea sure of who and
what it was they were facing.
“Eutok,” he said slowly, “get the Orb.”
“Ulurac—!”
“On my authority, get it,” he repeated.
“The queen will have your life!”
“And it is hers to take,” replied Ulurac. “But her life is not mine to take,
and if we do not do as he says, then we are responsible for its loss as surely
as Gant here will be.”
Eutok struggled where he stood, not wanting to do as
Ulurac was instructing, but unsure of what other path to take. “There must be
another way!”
“Not one that will leave your mother alive,” said Gant.
“This should really be a simple matter for you. All you have to do is ask
yourself what is truly important to you: an Orb that is intended to wipe out a
parasitic race... o r y o u r mother’s life. I suggest you make your
choice, right now.”
“ E u t o k... ” U l u r a c b e g a n .
But Eutok nodded, his shoulders sagging. “Very well, Ulurac. I think you are
wrong. I think what you are doing flies in the face of what our mother would
want. But I will not take it upon myself,” and he glanced around at the faces
of the dozens of Trulls surrounding them, “to deprive our people of their
ruler. I will get the Orb of the Trinity, and we
420
PETER DAVID

will give it to these bastards, and may the gods have mercy on us all.”
And as he turned away and headed off to get the Orb, his heart was pounding
with excitement, and his mind racing with all the opportunities the situation
presented him...
provided he could turn them to his advantage.
THE CITY- STATE OF VENETS
{His people are writhing in torment.}
{He would be able to sense it if he were not seeing it for himself. Their
state of perpetual bliss is being replaced by agony. He sees them fighting
among themselves. He sees several of them trying to chew off parts of their
own bodies for no good reason. He sees anger and petulance, bull males

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battling with one another by slamming heads or swing-
ing their feet around in vicious arcs. He sees females berat-
ing their mates, who are striking back at them with burning fury. He sees cubs
swimming in pointless circles, trying to understand why they feel the way they
do, and why they cannot go back to feeling the way they did.}
{He knows the turning point is coming soon, Gorkon does, and he is correct.
The turning point comes with the as-
sault upon the gate. And he is there when it happens.}
{In the past, when the gate was lowered, they learned to re-
spond by going to the Pier, where they would receive their in-
structions. But the gate remains down, they have gone to the
Pier, and no one is there. Gorkon knows perfectly well why. It is because they
do not yet know what to say. They are scram-
bling about like blind fish, trying to determine a plan, trying to figure out
what to say. They presume, foolishly and wrongly, that the Markene will keep.
That they will simply remain as they are, or perhaps simply become more and
more confused and bewildered, but will do nothing beyond that.}
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
421

{They are very, very wrong, and Gorkon can see that clearly, even though the
Markene cannot.}
{The assault upon the gate comes sooner than the Merk had expected, but more
or less exactly when Gorkon antici-
pated. He watches from a short distance away with interest as the Markene
begin to slam themselves against the mas-
sive steel barrier. It shudders under their attack, but does not give. The
Markene continue to assail it, breaking their heads, breaking their bodies
against the obstruction that prevents them from obtaining their beloved Klaa.
First a few attack, then dozens, then hundreds. It is a sight to see, more and
more Markene coming from all directions, all converging upon the gate,
throwing themselves against it over and over, and the gate shudders and
trembles but still holds firm against them. Nor is leaping over it a
possibility, for it towers far too high from the water.}
{The Markene wail and bemoan their lot, and they are crying out. And Gorkon
forces himself to watch from a place of mental detachment. He notices that the
single, one- noted moaning of “Klaaaaaaaa” is being replaced by coherent
thoughts and complex sentences. Granted, they are of the same sentiment, but
there’s more elegance to them. “Give us the Klaa!” “We demand you open the
gate!” “We have done nothing to deserve this!” “Bring us Klaa!”}
{He allows this to continue for as long as he can tolerate it, until the
howling of his people is not only deafening be-
neath the water, but also about as much as his heart can tol-
erate. And then he calls out a simple instruction: “
Listen to me!”
}
{Three simple words, but he repeats them, over and over and over again. It
seems to take forever. The sun, which has just emerged above the horizon line,
travels half its course through the sky as Gorkon continues to say, “Listen to
me, listen to me.” It takes that long for his words to break through the veil
of despair that threatens to envelop the Markene, and then a few of them
repeat the instructions, albeit slightly ad-
justed: “Listen to him!” They do not know why they should listen. They are not
prone to questioning such things. All they
422
PETER DAVID

know is that one of their own is demanding their attention, and this is such a

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rare event that it certainly must command notice.}
{Then even more time is required, for “Listen to him” is confusing and vague
since no one is quite sure to whom
“him” refers. So “him” is replaced in the repetition with
“Gorkon,” and then who Gorkon is must be further ex-
plained, and so on, and thus most of the day has passed before all the
assembled Markene are finally, finally, finally paying attention to Gorkon.}
{It is an eerie moment for him. They are angry and twitchy and looking for
someone or something to take out their ire upon, and all of them are now
focused completely on him. He sees the building rage in their eyes as they
float there staring at him, waiting for him to speak, and it is fur-
ther clear to him that if they do not like what he says, they could turn on
him and tear him to shreds in a matter of sec-
onds. Which could be very problematic considering he knows that what he is
about to say is not what they likely want to hear.}
{“The Klaa is gone,” he says.}
{His voice carries under the water, and there is confused murmuring as the
Markene look at each other and repeat what he has just said, and he can sense
a tidal wave of fury building and building. “The Klaa is not gone!” they are
howling. “We want it! It is there beyond the gate! Bring us our Klaa!”}
{And Gorkon, miraculously, amazingly, shouts above the growing outcry. It is
not difficult for him. All he need do is tap into the emotions built up during
all those tides when he fumed and mourned and felt outrage at his own people
for living in a Klaa- induced haze. What ever anger his people may be
feeling for him at this moment pales in comparison to what he feels toward
them.}
{“The Klaa is gone!” he repeats, and before they can shout him down, he
continues, “It is covered with a thick and deadly substance called url. It is
dead. It is gone. You cannot use it, cannot enjoy it. The gate is in place
because
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
423

they do not want you to know. They think to fool you. They think you are
fools. That is what the Merk think of the
Markene.”}
{“You lie!” cries one and “He is a liar!” shouts another.}
{And it is there and then that Gorkon gambles. “If I prove i t t o y o u...
i f I s h o wy o u t h e r u i ned Klaa... what will you do for me then,
my brethren? If I show you the truth...
what will you do for me?” He does not give them the op-
portunity to come up with their own option. “Will you fol-
low me? Will you attend me? Will you listen to my words and do as I ask?”}
{For a moment they ponder what he is saying, and then come a few cries of
“Yes!” and then more and soon it is a chorus of hundreds of voices saying
“Yes! Yes! We will fol-
low Gorkon! Bring us to the Klaa!”}
{“I will open the gate,” Gorkon says. “But when you see the url upon the Klaa,
touch it not or you will surely die.
N o w... c o m e w i t h m e , m y b r e t h r e n . ” }
{He brings them to the gate, picking a place arbitrarily, for one place is as
good as any other. “We will go over the gate,” he tells them.}
{Immediately they begin to protest, reminding him it is too high, reminding
him that they are helpless in the face of it.}
{“We are helpless if we allow ourselves to be,” he tells them. “If we are
united, we cannot be stopped. Do as I now tell you to do.”}
{He begins to pile them up. He creates a line of them, right at the place
where the waterline laps up along the gate, and then he has more Markene pile
atop those who are bracing themselves against the gate. And more piling atop

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of them, and another line, and another.}
{Gorkon does not know what a pyramid is. He does, however, know what a
mountain is, for he has seen any number of them along the bottom of the sea.
He creates a mountain now with the bodies of his brethren, and as he does so,
their incessant chant of “Klaa” slowly is replaced by another chant. For they
are beginning to realize what his
424
PETER DAVID

plan is, and their minds are clearing enough to appreciate it.
And the chant they begin to take up is “Gorkon, Gorkon.” It makes Gorkon’s
heart sing, this ac cep tance, and though he knows that it is only because
they are hoping he will bring them to their beloved Klaa, still it is enough
to sustain him for the moment.}
{Soon the mountain of Markene flesh is approaching the top of the gate, and
Gorkon, deciding it will suffice, selects a dozen or so young bucks to follow
him. “Prepare your-
selves!” he cries out, and he and the others begin to clamber up the bodies of
their fellow Markene. There is slipping and sliding, as is natural considering
how wet their pelts are, but
Gorkon and his followers persevere. They clamber higher and higher, and the
cry of “Gorkon! Gorkon!” is becoming nearly deafening even as it spurs him and
the others on.
They make it to the summit of the mammoth mountain of
Markene bodies, and Gorkon pulls himself up to the top of the gate, up and
almost over. The top is flat and wide enough that he lies upon it on his
stomach, reaches down, and grabs the arm of the nearest of his followers.
Muscles that can withstand the crushing pressures of the deep are more than
enough to haul a Markene up, and then a second and third and soon all of the
dozen are over the gate. They dive from the top, and it is a very long
plummet, but Gorkon and the others hit the water cleanly, skim down about
twenty feet, and then angle toward the Reef.}
{As they approach their goal, his followers begin to mur-
mur “Klaa, Klaa,” falling into their old habits. Gorkon is not concerned,
however, and within moments his lack of worry is justified. The horrified
Markene see their beloved Reef enveloped in the thick, viscous material that
Gorkon had called “url,” and their chants cease. “It’s true,” one of them
murmurs, and another of them begins to sob aloud.}
{“We must show the others,” instructs Gorkon briskly, not willing to give them
any time to mourn that which they have discovered. “Come.”}
{They angle toward the Reef, toward the controls that are set above on the
Reef itself that control the opening and
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
425

closing of the gate. At Gorkon’s instruction, the rest of his people go deep
while he himself skims the surface to see what awaits. Sure enough the keeper
is there, and he gestic-
ulates madly and bellows, “Keep back! How did you get past the gate? You are
not to come here! Get back!” His as-
sistant is there as well, armed with his harpoon, and he is waving it in a
most threatening manner. Gorkon knows both of them all too well, and he
fancies that he can see the blood of his father dried upon that harpoon.}
{He memorizes exactly where they are standing, jump-
ing about along the Reef, and then he flips over and plunges down, down to
where the Markene are waiting for him. The keeper and his assistant are
looking down suspiciously into the water, trying to discern what is happening,
and suddenly the waters begin to roil and then the Markene are hurtling out of

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the water, arcing ten, twenty feet into the air, Gorkon in the lead, roaring
in fury. The assistant has the harpoon poised, but Gorkon twists in midair,
angling around so that the harpoon merely grazes his side. He does not even
feel it as, in his descent, he bats aside the shaft of the harpoon with one
sweep of his powerful arm and lands squarely upon the assistant.}
{The keeper shrieks, turns, tries to run, doesn’t make it, as two of
Gorkon’s followers land upon him. He is crushed beneath their weight, while
Gorkon grabs the struggling as-
sistant’s head between his two mighty hands and smashes it firmly upon the
coral. Instantly the assistant stops moving, his eyes going dead, as the Reef
becomes stained with his blood.}
{The line has been crossed. Gorkon knows this. He does not care.}
{His body weight is an impediment upon the Reef, for he is not built to
operate efficiently outside of the water. But he does not let it stop him, nor
do the others. “Follow me!”
he calls out, and they do, and within seconds three of them, including Gorkon,
have reached the lever that opens the gate. It is but the work of an instant
to drag it into position, 426
PETER DAVID

and then they hear a rumbling and a familiar grinding of hidden mechanisms.
The gate rises.}
{In the distance, a great wave pours forward, presaging the arrival of the
rest of the Markene. They barrel toward their beloved Klaa and, as Gorkon
expects, a number of them completely ignore his instruction and throw them-
selves against the Reef, trying to get their hands upon the
Klaa. Fortunately for them much of the url has hardened, but a lot of it
remains thick and sticky, and in short order there are Markene who find their
hands or faces or parts of their body coated in the gunk. Gorkon has no pity
for them.
If they were stupid enough to ignore his warning, then they will be of no
use to him.}
{The Markene cry out at their discovery, and Gorkon spreads out his arms and
shouts, “Listen to me!” This time no repetition is required. This time his
voice carries and this time they fall into silence. “See the world through
newly opened eyes,” continues Gorkon. “See the truth of how the
Merk have treated you. See how they have used the Klaa to bludgeon you into
serving them. And see how they have allowed the Klaa now to fall prey to this
vile substance!”}
{“They did this?” the Markene demand, hundreds of voices shouting the same
question.}
{“Of course they did!” shouts Gorkon. “Who else? Would we do this to
ourselves?”}
{“No!” “Of course not!” “Never!”}
{“They did this because they want to destroy us! They are jealous of us! They
despise us, because we are stronger than they!” says Gorkon. “They want to
send us against the
Travelers, so we will surely die. They want to deprive us of
Klaa so that we will, in our throes of desperate want, turn upon each other.
Are we going to let them do this to us?”}
{
“No!”
they shout, their voices carry ing through the depths.}
{“Will we remain as slaves to the destructive whims of the Merk?”}
{
“No!”
}
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
427

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{“Will we reclaim our rights as the truly superior race of the Sirene?”}
{
“No!”
}
{He blinks. “You were supposed to say ‘yes’ that time.”}
{
“Yes!”
they chorus obediently.}
{Gorkon sighs. There is still a ways to go... b u t a t l e a s t it’s a
start.}
THE SPIRES
i.
Nicrominus had lost track of how much time had passed, floating in and out of
sleep. It might have seemed odd that anyone could possibly sleep at all under
the circumstances:
being cradled in gigantic tendrils that were dangling be-
neath a gargantuan floating creature that he had never seen before. But
Nicrominus had hardly slept since the Traveler had first come to him with the
mandate to discover what might be going wrong with hotstars. He had been
pushing himself far beyond what was wise for one of his years, and could not
recall the last time that he had slept more than an hour or so. Every time he
had drifted to sleep, the urgency of the project and the haunting images of
the Travelers would rouse him to wakefulness.
Now, though, secure in the grip of the Zeffer, Nicrominus felt oddly at peace.
Perhaps it was the steady wind in his face, perhaps it was the continued
swaying of the beast in that same wind as it glided along effortlessly. What
ever the reason, as Nicrominus gazed down at the lapping blue waves of the
ocean far, far below, he settled into a deep and carefree sleep.
When he began to wake, at first he thought he was still
428
PETER DAVID

dreaming, for what he saw before him seemed as if it could only possibly be
the construct of a sleeping mind.
There was an island stretching out before him, as he hung high in the air, and
the scope and breadth of it staggered him.
Nicrominus had been a young ’Draque when the Third
Wave had arrived on the shores of the Damned World.
Since he was still merely a student in the ways of Fire-
draque wizardry, he had not been at the forefront of the bat-
tles against the humans. For the most part, he had only heard about the
thunderous wars against the Morts as they had struggled to maintain control of
their dirtball world...
and had failed in the face of the Third Wave’s overwhelm-
ing superiority. Of course, once the Morts had fallen, the foolish Twelve
Races had then turned upon one another, raiding and sacking each other’s
provinces. Nicrominus could still remember his first sight of the Piri,
slithering through the streets of Perriz with—of all things—paintings
snatched from a nearby museum. He’d wondered what creatures such as they could
possibly want with them, and had come to the conclusion that they were
planning to burn them for warmth, or perhaps simply desecrate them to show
their contempt for the Damned World’s previous own ers.
The sight of what he knew had to be the Spires at once thrilled and depressed
him. Thrilled him for finally having the opportunity to see that which he had
only heard about in whispers. Depressed him because he couldn’t help but
feel, just for a moment, that he had wasted his life cloistered away in one
small section of the world.

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The Spires. A largely intact city that was representative of what the Morts
had created before the Third Wave came crashing down upon them.
Nicrominus did not know for certain how it was that the
City of Spires had remained mostly untouched. By all ac-
counts, most other similar cities had been leveled in the fighting. What he
had heard was that the Overseer had taken an interest in the Spires, had
descended upon it with his
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
429

Travelers, and somehow—single- handedly—annihilated every human being who
had resided there, without the con-
comitant damage to the terrain that one might have ex-
pected in such an endeavor. How the Overseer and his
Travelers had accomplished such a feat could only be guessed at. But the fact
that they had done it at all was the foundation for their reputation.
The Twelve Races had overwhelmed the Morts, true, but it had taken a hell of a
lot of fighting, they had not gone down easily, and the races had certainly
suffered their share of casualties. For the Overseer and the Travelers to
dispose of the allegedly millions upon millions of Morts who resided in the
Spires without suffering a single casualty, or even real- estate loss,
hinted at abilities and resources of which the other races could only dream.
Nicrominus felt a sudden shift and, only for a moment, thought that the Zeffer
was about to drop him. He was wrong.
It was changing both direction and altitude, descending to-
ward the Spires. It was at that point that he heard something he hadn’t
before. It sounded like—oddly enough—someone singing. It was coming from
above, from the unseen con-
troller of the Zeffer. At first he assumed that it was just some sort of idle
tune to pass the time, but he quickly realized his error as each of the
Zeffer’s subsequent movements, however subtle, responded to a change in tone
from the singer. He could not detect any individual words; just intonations.
Those were apparently all the creature needed to be guided.
“Amazing,” he whispered. He could not wait to return to
Perriz and tell Evanne and Xeris of what he had experi-
enced. It was only at that moment that he considered the no-
t i o n t h a t... p e r h a p s... h e m i g h t n o t b e r e t u r n
i ng. After all, the Overseer was bringing him to the Spires to hear his
thoughts about the hotstars. Once Nicrominus had told him, his job would be
done. If the Overseer then felt that
Nicrominus would be of no further use to him . . .
. . . that might well be the end of Nicrominus.
He resolved not to concern himself about it. He was too
430
PETER DAVID

old to obsess about clinging to life, or how it might end.
Every day was a blessing, and if he survived this one—
which clearly was just beginning as the sun crept up over the horizon—then
that was to be appreciated. If he didn’t, well . . . at least he’d seen the
Spires before he died.
ii.
The Zeffer set Nicrominus down upon a building with a large, flat top. There
was a ring drawn in the middle of it which might have had some mystical,
symbolic meaning to it. Then again, it might simply have been a targeting
device of some sort. Either way, Nicrominus stood there, his robes flapping
about him in the early- morning breeze, as the Zeffer wafted away from him,
angling up and over the City of Spires in a manner that Nicrominus could only

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term “majestic.”
Nicrominus had never been so high up in a building be-
fore. Slowly he approached the edge of the roof and looked down from the
dizzying height. He realized belatedly that he was gripping the edge and
stepped back, holding his stom-
ach and fighting a sudden wave of wooziness. Odd that he would react that way
now, considering how much higher up he’d been while in the grip of the Zeffer.
The rooftop door opened and a Traveler emerged.
Nicrominus waited for the Traveler to speak, but he simply gestured for
Nicrominus to follow. The Firedraque did so.
Once inside, the Traveler guided him to a small room, which Nicrominus stepped
into obediently. The door slid shut noiselessly behind him and there, in the
dim lighting, Nicrominus waited. He was clueless as to the nature of the room.
Was he to meet the Overseer here? There was barely enough space for
Nicrominus himself.
Suddenly the room jolted, and Nicrominus felt as if the floor was falling away
beneath his feet. He heard an odd
“whizzing” sound as if cable were being unspooled from somewhere. He put his
hands out to either side, having the
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
431

oddest sensation of movement, but not entirely sure what it was that was
moving. Moreover, there was a series of small lights over the door that were
blinking, moving con-
sistently from right to left, one at a time, and a small trian-
gle pointing downward that was gleaming red.
“Hello?” he called to the triangle. “Can anyone hear me?”
Long seconds ticked by in silence, with that strange sense of dislocation
continuing. Then the floor shifted once more and the door opened.
There was a Traveler standing there waiting for him . . .
presumably the same one who had led him into this odd room in the first place.
He gestured mutely for Nicrominus to step out of the room.
It was only upon his emerging that Nicrominus realized that he was in a
completely different place within the build-
ing: the bottom, apparently. The street that had been little more than thin
black ribbon earlier as he had stared down from the roof was now directly
outside a series of large glass doors. The amazing room had actually
transported him from the top of the building to the bottom. Obviously
something so ingenious, bordering on magic, could only have been put in place
by the Overseer after his taking over of the Spires. It left Nicrominus
wondering whether the same Traveler had somehow moved from the top of the
building to the bottom, or if it was another one who had been waiting for him.
Since one Traveler looked identical to another, it was impossible to tell, and
he certainly wasn’t about to ask.
Without waiting to be prompted by the Traveler, he headed for the large glass
doors and tentatively pushed one open.
He stepped out onto the road, which was quite wide, and looked up and down it.
There was no movement. Nothing.
It was as if the City of Spires was dead. He tried to pic-
ture humans, in their heyday, moving through the streets, but had trouble
envisioning that many in one place. There were lights standing at
intersections of streets, blinking red, 432
PETER DAVID

yellow, and green intermittently, probably placed there for some sort of
festival.
The air also smelled different. More acrid somehow. It burned his nostrils and

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throat a bit, and even made him squint.
The Traveler was now by his side and pointing silently down the street.
Nicrominus started walking in the direction he had indicated, craning his neck
to see the tops of the
Spires as he did so. He wondered how it was that humans could have moved
around in such a place. Were they not constantly tripping over their own
feet as they looked up in wonderment at the mighty buildings, so high that
their tops were not visible from the ground?
“Did this city have a name?” Nicrominus inquired. The
Traveler, unsurprisingly, said nothing, and he wondered why he had even
bothered to ask.
Then the Traveler stopped moving and instead pointed once more, this time to
another building. It was substan-
tially smaller than the building that Nicrominus had landed upon, but far
gaudier. Large vertical lettering ran up the side of the building, spelling
something that made no sense to the Firedraque. There was more lettering
running hori-
zontally around the building as well, but Nicrominus was even more fascinated
by pictures that festooned the outer wall. He approached it, studying it
closely. There were pic-
t u r e s o f h u m a n s... a l i n e o f f e m a l e h u m ans,
bare- legged, in red clothing, and each had one leg raised high in the air for
no apparent reason. In the middle of the line of fe-
males was what Nicrominus took to be a male. He was also dressed in red, but
he was far more corpulent, and had a bushel of white facial hair. He likewise
had a leg raised in the air.
It was most curious, for back in Perriz, in his perusal of various texts, he
had seen images of other human females also engaged in similar gyrations, in
wall hangings and books and such. And he had seen the human male as well,
often pictured with a sack slung over his back or crouched near green trees.
But he knew he was nowhere near Perriz now, and wondered what the association
could be.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
433

Obeying the silent command of the Traveler, he walked into the building. Once
within, he was overwhelmed by a sense of faded glory in the carpeting and
furnishings. Un-
sure of where to go, he headed up a flight of stairs and fi-
nally found himself in front of an array of gold doors that stood wide open.
He was surprised, upon entering, to discover a vast am-
phitheater, with hundreds upon hundreds of seats facing a vast, darkened
proscenium. All was silence. He didn’t know if he was in the right place or,
if he was, what was supposed to happen.
Cautiously, he walked down one of the aisles that led to-
ward the proscenium. The lighting was dim but adequate, although it was a bit
cold in the theater. He marveled at the architecture, at the intricate designs
on the walls and ceil-
ing. It made him appreciate all the more the impressive ingenuity of humans,
and regret that virtually all of his knowledge of them was limited to the
histories and studies he had read about them. Granted many of them had been
written by Firedraques who had made humans something of a specialty. Even
Nicrominus had managed to learn enough of one of the human languages—the one
most prevalent in
Perriz—to read and comprehend the writings of some of their own philosophers
and historians. Still, it was becom-
ing clear from his recent intense study of humans, their his-
tory and their lives, that there was far more to them than any had suspected.
Particularly when taken in considera-

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tion with—
It was at that moment that the lights in the amphitheater suddenly faded,
plunging most of the vast chamber into near blackness. Then a single beam of
light struck the prosce-
nium at the front, and there was the sound of gears turning and something
being lowered from overhead.
Nicrominus stood there in silent awe as the Overseer—
or, at the very least, the being he presumed to be the
Overseer—descended from above.
He was seated in a vast chair that closely resembled a throne, but was
extremely square on all sides, and made
434
PETER DAVID

from shimmering silver metal. He was at least two, perhaps three heads taller
than Nicrominus and half again as wide, the Firedraque guessed, and he was
clad entirely in gleam-
ing armor from his head to his feet. The armor was designed in such a way that
it was impossible to get any idea what the
Overseer’s body or face were actually like.
The Overseer remained completely immobile as the chair continued to be lowered
on what Nicrominus could now see were several long cables. Finally the chair
settled onto the proscenium, but the Overseer did not move. Nicrominus re-
mained precisely where he was.
The silence continued to stretch to an uncomfortable length, until Nicrominus
said, “You are... t h e O v e r s e e r , I
take it?”
The head was helmeted, the front shield covering the face completely. It was
solid except for a narrow slit at ap-
proximately where the eyes might be, but the space was dark within and
Nicrominus could not determine the nature of his eyes, or even how many he
had. He was even begin-
ning to wonder whether the armor was occupied, until a very small, but
distinct, inclination of the head in response to his question confirmed for
Nicrominus that there was in-
deed someone in there.
“I am . . . Nicrominus. Which I assume you know. I thank you for agreeing to
see me,” he said, and he realized it was one of those odd moments where one
just doesn’t know what to do with one’s hands. So he settled for holding his
arms across his chest. “I am going to further assume that your Travelers have
informed you of the preliminary thoughts and notions that I have developed,
and which have likewise found grounding in the theories presented by my
student, Xeris.”
Again, ever so small, ever so delicate, came the slight in-
clination of the head.
“All right, then. I have developed some further notions about the matter,
particularly in how it relates to human be-
ings, the late masters of this world. I will admit at the outset that they
might be considered . . . unorthodox. Nevertheless, DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
435

I would ask that you give them a fair hearing, for they may well be true or at
least have a grain of truth in them. Is that acceptable to you, Overseer?”
This time the mighty metal- clad figure didn’t so much as move his head.
Nicrominus, for no reason other than rank optimism, chose to take that as a
positive sign.
“To understand our present situation... one has to un-
derstand the previous occupants of what has been named the Damned World. I am

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speaking, of course, about the hu-
mans.” Nicrominus, despite the great number of chairs, chose to remain
standing. It seemed only appropriate in the presence of the individual
believed to be the most powerful on the planet. “It is undeniable that humans
possessed a spectacular arrogance regarding their own status. Accord-
ing to our studies and their own histories, they took it upon themselves to
befoul this world as they saw fit, with pollu-
tion and filth. They deforested entire sections, heedlessly slew other life-
forms into extinction, without caring how such actions would affect the cycle
of life. That arrogance carried over into subspecies interaction, as different
sub-
species believed that they, and only they, were the right and true rulers of
the Damned World. They would often en-
deavor to hunt one another into extinction as well.
“The irony, of course, is that I cannot say that the Twelve
Races are all that much better. Indeed, some would say that at some level, we
and the humans deserved each other.
“Even more intriguingly,” Nicrominus continued, “the humans had a tendency to
be... h o w b e s t t o p u t t h i s ? ‘ H u -
man- centric’ in many of their philosophies. At one time they believed that
the sun moved around the Damned
World, rather than the other way round. Their answer for life on other worlds
was to dismiss the notion out of hand since no planetary neighbors had made a
point of coming b y... a s i f t h e u n i v e r s e considered them
anything other than one single mote of dirt in a vast universe of similar,
undistinguished motes. Each group of humans believed its own par tic u lar
god was responsible for the creation of the universe, and that they, the
humans, held the divine truth of
436
PETER DAVID

existence in their books and teachings. They believed that they alone, of all
the creatures that exist on this world and possibly in the universe, were
made in the image of their god. Just another of their divine truths.
Naturally, the hu-
mans could never agree even on whose divine truth was most divine, since they
all presented conflicts, and their ten-
dency to go to war over those disagreements outstripped even the Twelve Races
in sheer eagerness for conflict.
“In short, Overseer . . . humans foolishly believed them-
selves to be the center of everything in creation.
“The thing is, Overseer . . . my studies, the theories I’ve developed, my
investigation of the diminished hotstar you gave me, or rather that one of
your Travelers gave me . . .
ends up posing a fascinating question. And that question is this:
“What if the humans were right?”
He waited for some sort of response and got none. It might have meant that the
Overseer was being attentive. Or he might just have been bored. He might even
have gone to sleep in that gleaming armor and Nicrominus wouldn’t know.
“ I t ’ s... t h i s w a y . T h i s r e a l m t h a t w e ’ r e r e
s i d i n g i n r i g h t n o w... i t ’ s j u s t one of many. Infinite
realms there are, infi-
nite dimensions. We know and understand that, even though most humans did not.
And each dimension works in differ-
ent ways, has rules that enable it to function. Rules that were put in place
by the gods, blessed be they. Rules that are not handed to us, but instead we
are expected to discern as we go.
“Different dimensions align more closely with some than others. As it
happened, the Elserealms aligned closely with this one. ‘Neighbors’ is the way

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that the humans would have put it. When individuals are neighbors, that which
happens in one realm can spill through to, or affect, what happens in the
other.
“Part of the ‘spill- through,’ in our case, are the hotstars.
They were rare here, but commonplace in the Elserealms.
What we did not realize, I believe, is that the source of their energy was
here, in this plane of existence.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
437

“ I b e l i e v e t h a t t h e s o u r c e o f t h a t e n e r g y...
w a s t h e minds of humans. Which,” he said quickly, “may on the sur-
face of it sound ludicrous. Then again, I should point out that it is
documented fact that humans used, as their own source of energy, the
fossilized remains of long- dead ani-
mals. So I don’t think that one is intrinsically more ridicu-
lous than the other.”
Again he waited for response. Again he received nothing.
He took a deep breath and plunged further ahead into un-
known territory.
“Say what you will about humans... b u t t h e y r e l e n t -
lessly used their imagination, their dreams, if you will, to shape this world
to their liking. They thought, in their lim-
ited way, that this was simply a mea sure of their ingenuity.
But it was more profound, much deeper than that. This plane of existence, for
what ever reason—whim of the gods, if nothing else—was, and is, entirely
shaped by the con-
scious and even unconscious desires of human beings.
“They thought that form followed function. They were wrong. The truth was
the exact opposite: Function fol-
lowed form. Humans would develop in their collective, dreaming minds the sort
of world they desired. One that did not exist. This unconscious desire would
then sit in a type of ‘between’ state, a ‘limbo’ or transitory condition.
And so it would remain until enough humans dreamed the dream, at which point
they would then . . . through bursts of industrialization, or visionary
philosophers and leaders, o r e v e n w a r s... b r i n g t h e
unconscious desires to reality.
They would think of it as ideas waiting to happen, and in a sense, they were
right. They just didn’t understand that there was an actual, metaphysical
structure behind it. The concepts would develop a nebulous form, and then the
functions would follow to actualize it.
“I even found one documented case where a world leader, all unaware,
manipulated that ability. He informed his followers that, within ten cycles
around the sun, they would land on the moon. An unlikely goal and one that
would have been forgotten, save that he was then martyred.
438
PETER DAVID

As a result the dream took hold with unusual fervor, func-
tion followed form, and the humans were on the moon in even less than the
allotted time.” He paused and said to him-
self, “Which now makes me think that humans might have been crafty enough to
have made that moving room I was in.”
And still the Overseer made no response.
“In any event, Overseer,” Nicrominus continued, “here is the situation, and
the problem. The human race has largely been purged from the Damned World. And
if my theory is correct, those humans who do remain are remarkably dan-
gerous. For energy cannot truly be destroyed; it simply changes form or

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concentrates elsewhere. Which means the pure power of dream and imagination,
rather than being dif-
fused over millions of humans, is now concentrated within the minds of a mere
handful. Of course, they don’t know it. They know of a time when humans
dominated, but ac-
cept the status of their environment for what it is. But if they d r e a m o
f g r e a t e r t h i n g s... i f t h e y t a k e t o i m a g i n i n
g t h i n g s n o t a s t h e y a r e , b u t a s t h e y c o u l d b
e... i t c o u l d b e d i sas-
trous for us. Through means we cannot begin to guess, they could set events
into motion—affect probabilities, develop devices—that could spell the end
of the Twelve Races.
“But we cannot simply destroy the humans in self- defense, because therein
lies our quandary. You see, naturally this sphere, this plane of existence,
far preexisted human beings.
It was, however, chaotic. Unformed and void, almost unrec-
ognizable. Humans were created to help bring it into sharper focus. They
began as primitive specimens, but evolved over time. As they evolved, this
sphere likewise evolved from the chaos that reigned to the relative order that
now holds sway.
The calamitous depopulation of humans has thrown this plane of existence out
of whack. We are seeing, in the di-
minishment of the power of hotstars, merely the first step. If my theory is
correct, if the few humans who are left should die off completely, the
hotstars will not be the only things to give out. This entire plane of
existence could come com-
pletely unraveled. It could well descend into the chaos that
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
439

existed before humans were developed to hammer it into shape through their
imagination, their will, their hopes and dreams and aspirations, and their odd
obsession with as-
cribing names to everything. They even gave a name to the phenomenon: entropy.
“Nor will it necessarily end here. The nearness of the
Elserealms, its dependence upon hotstars, and the effect the current energy
depletion is having, indicates that the delete-
rious effects may ripple through to the Elserealms as well.
Both the Banished and those who banished us may well share the same fate.
“The depopulation of humanity could be the single great-
est calamity the Twelve Races has ever faced. There is only one solution that
I can see: We must locate what humans there are and find a way to repopulate
the species, all the while holding their dreams in check or turning them to
serve us, lest they wind up—through sheer force of will—
creating a series of circumstances that could lead to our ut-
ter destruction.”
For a long moment, the Overseer said nothing.
Then came a deafening sound, like a crack of thunder, except it was within the
enclosed amphitheater. Lights flick-
ered wildly, as if a storm had actually sprung up all around.
Nicrominus staggered under the impact, the lights going from blinding to
blackness and back again so fast that he threw up his arms to shield his eyes.
And then, if he’d had any doubts that the armor upon that high rise was
anything other than inhabited, they were shat-
tered as the Overseer slowly, menacingly, began to rise to his feet. Blue
energy crackled all around him, and Nicromi-
nus, who had told himself that neither the Overseer nor the
Travelers held any fear for him, now knew pure, undiluted terror. It was not
as if Nicrominus was without resources himself, but he could not focus any of

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his own energies. He was overwhelmed with stark, stinking fear, and he dropped
to his knees and trembled and prayed to the gods to spare him. The Overseer
was standing now, and he approached the edge of the stage, one great, clanking
foot at a time.
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PETER DAVID

Each step echoed and the entire theater shook each time, and Nicrominus
whimpered like a hatchling.
When the Overseer spoke, his voice was as overwhelm-
ing as the crashing of the ocean waves and the howling of the tornado, and he
spoke seven words, slowly and ponder-
ously, that would rip their way into the soul of Nicrominus, seven words that
he would never, ever forget.
“YOU,” thundered the Overseer. “HAVE
GOT
. TO BE
SHITTING ME
.”
iii.
Norda Kinklash was exceptionally pleased with herself.
This had been her best hiding ever.
Ever.
“You should have seen me,” she sang to her brother, hug-
ging herself with joy. “No, but . . . you wouldn’t have. My new daddy didn’t
see me. Not the scary traveling man. Not even the floaty thing I was hiding
in.”
For that, indeed, was where she had been.
The floaty thing—she had seen it coming. It wasn’t al-
ways easy for her to distinguish what she saw in her mind from what she saw in
reality, so it had taken her a few mo-
ments to react. When she had, she had done so quickly, cut-
ting open a vein and smearing a message to her brother, who she knew would
come looking for her. Then she had stood and waited, waited for the floaty
thing to float her way. When it had—when the long, dangling tentacles had
been tantalizingly close—she had grabbed them and clam-
bered up quick as lightning. Her new daddy hadn’t spotted her, what with being
reasonably distracted with looking around from his new perspective. She had
insinuated her-
self among the tentacles, wrapping them around her arms and legs so that she
could support herself. It felt good, oddly enough, even comforting. She felt
as if her mother was cradling her in her arms.
There she had remained, and she had been sleeping when she was startled awake
by the realization that the floaty
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
441

thing had ceased moving. Looking down, she’d seen that
Nicrominus had been deposited upon a rooftop and the floaty thing was moving
away from him.
For the first time she was seized with a trill of alarm, but there was nothing
she could do. The canyons of her strange surroundings yawned below her. She
judged the possibility of surviving the fall if she simply released her grasp
and knew she wouldn’t have had a prayer. So she clutched on to the
tentacles, looking around for a possible means of dis-
embarking. Then she saw something, coming up fast. It ap-
peared to be some sort of huge metal spike, projecting from the top of an
impossibly tall building. It was a short dis-

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tance to her right, and at first she thought she wasn’t going to be able to
make it. Then, in a burst of inventiveness, she started throwing her weight
back and forth, swinging on the tentacle in a wider and wider arc. She had no
idea if the floaty thing noticed what she was doing, and she had nei-
ther the time nor the inclination to worry about it. Instead she was
entirely too busy being pleased with herself over her ingenuity.
Just as she was passing the spike, she swung on the tenta-
cle as far as she could and then released it. The momentum of the arc sent her
hurtling through the air. She was fortu-
nate. The winds this high up were fierce and buffeting, but they were
blowing with her and helped carry her the addi-
tional distance over which she might otherwise have fallen short. She snagged
it with her outstretched claws and wrapped herself around it.
She let out a cry of joy and sang a little song over the wonderfulness of
being her. Then she watched as the floaty thing sailed away, oblivious of the
fact that it had carried an additional passenger.
Norda clung to the spike for a while, swaying in the wind, because she
realized a couple of things.
First, hunger was beginning to chew at her gut. Man draques could go many days
without eating, since they tended to digest their food at an incredibly slow
rate. But
Norda couldn’t recall the last time she had consumed any-
442
PETER DAVID

thing, and her stomach was starting to remind her of that fact.
Second, she didn’t have the faintest idea where she was or how to get down
from her perch.
But she wasn’t concerned. She decided that, what ever sort of fix she had
managed to get herself into, Arren would come along and get her out of it.
That had always been the history of their relationship, and she had no reason
what-
ever to think that recent events were going to change that.
So she clung to the spike and proceeded to sing herself little songs while
waiting for Arren to show up.
THE UNDERGROUND
As the Truller hurtled through the tunnel, the Bottom Feed-
ers holding on with all their might, Karsen kept staring at the gleaming
sphere that Gant—or, more correctly, Gant inside the body of Queen
Eurella—was holding tightly pressed against his bosom. On one particularly
hazardous curve, the thing almost went flying from his, or her, hands, but
Gant managed to hold on. Since he had both his arms wrapped around the Orb of
the Trinity, Karsen and Mingo were each holding on to the side of the car
with one hand while press-
ing down on either of Gant’s shoulders with their free hands.
It was, to say the least, a challenging endeavor.
“Are you sure that’s it ”
? Karsen shouted into Gant’s ear above the rushing of the air around them.
Gant nodded.
“Absolutely,”
he called back.
“I can feel
Eurella screaming in my head. She’s not happy at all.”
“Can you control her?”
“Yes. But it’s not easy.”
Zerena was in the back of the speeding car, along with
Rafe, constantly looking behind themselves to make sure that no one was
following them. And Jepp...
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443

Jepp kept staring at the Orb. She was so fixed upon it that she was barely
blinking, as if afraid to look away from it lest it do something untoward.
Mingo leaned in over Gant and called to Karsen, “How do we know this thing is
going to let us off where the Trulls said it would? Remember, we derailed it
in order to get on!”
“We don’t know,”
Karsen shouted back.
“We have to trust them!”
“Great plan! Because we know how interested in our welfare they are!”
“They don’t care about us, but they care about their queen! That’s all that
matters!”
Mingo nodded in grim agreement, and the Truller contin-
ued along its course.
And still Jepp wouldn’t take her gaze from the Orb. Fi-
nally Karsen demanded, “What’s wrong?”
She didn’t reply, only shook her head slightly and contin-
ued staring at it.
Karsen was about to push the matter when the Truller suddenly jolted. Gant
bounced upward but was promptly shoved back down by Karsen and Mingo. Karsen
glanced behind along the path that the Truller had just traversed, and he saw
what appeared to be some sort of raised device inset to the right- hand
track. Apparently they had just run over it, and as the car continued to slow,
he assumed that it was a triggering device—activated at some distant
point—by the
Trulls that was causing the vehicle to diminish speed quite rapidly.
“Brace yourselves,” Zerena said, not having to shout as the noise level
dropped. “I think we’re about to—”
The Trull car suddenly jolted to a halt, throwing all of them forward save for
Gant, who miraculously managed to stay exactly where he was.
“—stop,” Zerena finished.
“Gods, I don’t believe it.” Karsen was looking around and saw an intersection
of tunnels. “This is it. This is ex-
actly where we first got on. That’s just amazing.”
“Yes, I’m very impressed,” Zerena said, vaulting out of
444
PETER DAVID

the Truller. “But what I’d really like is to be able to be im-
pressed from a distance. Let’s go.”
“What about her?” asked Mingo, chucking a thumb at
Gant. “I mean him? I mean... t h e h e r t h a t h e ’ s i n ? I a s -
sume that Gant doesn’t want to go through life as a Trull queen.”
Gant gave him an annoyed look. “Right, because going through life as an
amorphous blob is far preferable.”
“What are you saying? That you want to stay that w a y...? ”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Gant sighed. “I just . . . it reminds me of what it was
like having a real body. I miss it.”
“We’ll find a way to make it better for you, Gant,” Karsen said. “I don’t know
how, but we will.”
Not looking especially convinced, but clearly not inter-
ested in getting into a lengthy debate about it, Gant just half- nodded and
started forward, continuing to clutch the
Orb of the Trinity tightly in his arms.
Karsen had barely had a chance to get a look at the thing.
It was fairly smooth, but there were small switches on it, and a flat red
panel that was partly see- through. There was also a circle on one side of

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it that looked like a cylinder had been inserted into it. He had no clue what
the significance of the cylinder might be or, for that matter, what the true
purpose of the Orb might be either. Something that created light, something
that would rid Nagel of the Piri. It all seemed so unsubstantiated. But it
wasn’t his place or even to his interest to determine the whys and wherefores
of the thing. He and his clan were simply out to deliver the thing to the
Ocular, aid him in disposing of a deadly nuisance, and save their own skins in
the bargain.
Still . . . there was more than the skin saving, he realized.
There was something about trying to help Nagel, to do something that would
make someone else’s life better . . .
there was just such a nobility of purpose to it . . . it made
Karsen feel . . .
He couldn’t articulate it. He had never felt this way be-
f o r e... w e l l , t h a t w asn’t true. When he had rescued Jepp
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
445

from the marauding Mandraques, it was the first time he’d felt as if he were
aspiring to something greater than simple survival. In some ways, he’d been
wrestling with the feel-
ings uncovered on that occasion ever since.
And still there was something going on with Jepp now that gnawed at him. She
was moving stiffly, uncertainly, continuously casting glances at the Orb as if
she expected it to somehow devour them. As they made their way through the
tunnels, with Gant effortlessly retracing their steps, Karsen tried several
times to engage Jepp in conversation about it. To find out what was bothering
her. Each time she simply shook her head, smiled wanly, but said nothing.
Rafe Kestor had his sword at the ready, muttering, “Ene-
mies to the right of us, enemies to the left of us... ”
“Rafe, there’s rock to the right and left of us,” said Mingo, “to say nothing
of above and below us.”
Zerena was looking around suspiciously, and she gripped her sword tightly, her
hooved feet moving cautiously across the stony floor. “Don’t be so certain. I
keep thinking they’re following us. They know these passages in ways we
can’t hope to. They could descend upon us and... ”
“And what?” said Gant from up ahead. “Risk killing their queen? You have no
idea to what extent they will go in order to prevent that from happening.”
“Yes, but here’s a cheerful thought,” Zerena replied.
“We’re bringing this thing to Nagel so that we needn’t con-
cern ourselves with the Ocular hunting us down and trying to turn us into a
light snack. Has it occurred to anyone that now we have to worry about the
Trulls coming after us?
From now until the end of our days, for all we know, the ground will rip open
beneath us and we’ll go plummeting into their waiting hands.”
“Thanks, Mother,” Karsen said. “I needed that image in my head so I could
sleep well at night.”
“No complaining from you, considering you and your
Mort got us into this.”
Karsen didn’t reply, mostly because he knew that to be true. Then suddenly he
scented something and tilted his
446
PETER DAVID

head back to make certain that he was getting it right.
“Does anyone else... ” h e b e g a n .
“Smell fresh air?” Mingo interrupted. “Yes. Undoubtedly.”
“Gods, we’re almost back,” said Zerena. “We are the luckiest bastards on the

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face of the Damned World.”
There wasn’t much light ahead of them. They had lost track of time down below,
and so weren’t all that surprised to discover that a dark and starless night
was waiting for them.
Gant in the lead, they emerged from the tunnel entrance that had led them down
into the realm of the Trulls, and Gant called out, “There’s the jumpcar!
Waiting for us right where we left it! I can’t believe it was this... ”
And then, from around the back of the jumpcar, Eutok stepped out into plain
sight with a grim smile upon his face.
“. . . easy,” Gant finished.
The other Bottom Feeders closed in tightly behind him, and Karsen was scouring
the entire area around them, all the possible hiding places behind rocks or
trees where additional
Trulls were doubtless concealed, preparing to leap out upon them.
None were. None did.
“Satisfied?” Eutok said after a lengthy pause. He walked slowly toward them,
his hands draped behind his back.
“Checked the area, have you? Satisfied yourself that none of my people are
about to come jumping out to assail you?”
“How did you get here?” demanded Zerena.
Eutok continued to approach, swaggering in a gait that indicated excessive
confidence. “There are none who can match me for my Trulling experience.
Long- forgotten pas-
sages, shortcuts... I can go anywhere, be anywhere that our systems can
reach long before anyone else can hope to make it there.”
Gant, still cradling the Orb in one arm, pulled out the queen’s knife and
placed it at the throat of his “host.” “No further, Trull, or I swear to the
gods, I’ll . . .”
“Kill her?” Eutok kept advancing, and he was smiling.
“Go ahead.”
“I’m serious... ”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
447

“As am I.” Eutok spread wide his arms, like a showman playing to an imaginary
audience. “I’m quite serious. We’re the only ones here, you Bottom Feeders
and I. I don’t have to pretend now. Kill her. Go ahead.”
“You’re daring us to?”
It had been Karsen who spoke, and Eutok looked at him and said, “No, Laocoon.
I’m not daring you. I
want you to.”
“What?” whispered Karsen. “You’re not—”
“Serious? Perfectly so.” He stopped several feet away. “I
could not have asked for more ideal assassins, or a better situation. Kill the
queen, my mother. I will discover her dead body, lead my people in appropriate
wailing and m o a n i n g... ”
“And then your brother, the elder, will take over the king-
dom,” said Gant. “That is the order of succession, is it not?”
“Just so.”
“And where does that leave you, then?”
“One step closer than I was before,” smiled Eutok.
Karsen was stunned by the cold- blooded calculation, al-
though he knew that he should have learned by this point in his life never to
be surprised at anything any members of the Twelve Races did. “What about the
Orb of the Trinity?”
he demanded suspiciously.
“Take the damned thing,” Eutok said with a shrug. “That old relic was my
mother’s par tic u lar obsession. I’ve no use for it.”
And then Jepp spoke up, and Karsen was thunderstruck as she said, “Give it to

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him. Give it to him and let’s go.”
“It?” All eyes had now gone to Jepp and Karsen contin-
ued, “What . . . ‘it’ . . . do you mean?”
“It. The Orb.” She pointed at it with trembling finger.
“Give him his queen mother or kill her, whichever, it makes no difference to
me, but give him the Orb back.”
“I’ll kill her,” said Zerena.
“I’m serious, Karsen,” Jepp said. “Make him take it if he doesn’t want it.”
“I swear to the gods, Karsen, I’m going to kill her,” Zerena
448
PETER DAVID

warned once more. “If she says it again, right here, right now, I’m going to
tear her head off with my bare hands and you won’t have a damned thing to say
about it.”
“Jepp, you... i t ’ s madness
!” Karsen said.
Eutok watched them with growing impatience. “You peo-
ple really don’t know what the hell you’re doing, do you.
Look, we need to move this along... ”
“ I k n o w i t s o u n d s c r a z y , K a r s e n... ”
“Not sounds!
Is!
You’re one of the main reasons we un-
dertook this, and we’re not about to give back our prize now just because
you... I don’t even know what the because is!”
“It’s just . . . it’s a feeling I’ve had ever since I actually saw it.” She
was starting to tremble. “Things I’m remem-
b e r i n g... e xcept they never happened to me... b u t t o o t h -
e r s o f m y k i n d... i s... i s t h a t possible? To remember like
t h a t...? ”
“You’re right,” Eutok said flatly. “She’s insane. You’re all insane. And if
you think I’m going to stand here forever, you’re insane. You,” and he
pointed, “Gant. That’s your name? Gant?” The queen’s head nodded. “Kill the
queen.
Now. In doing so, you’ll earn my gratitude.”
“The gratitude of a traitor who’d stand by and see his own mother die?” Gant
said doubtfully. “Of what use will that be to me?”
“You’d be amazed. I overheard you before. A gelatinous mass is your natural
state? I can help you with that.”
“You can?” Gant snorted. “You can overcome Phey mag-
icks?”
“No. But I can craft you your own body. Nothing is be-
yond Trull tech. Your own body that will see, hear, feel, t o u c h... i t w
ill take time, but I can do that for you.”
Gant continued to look skeptical, but the touch of hope in his voice was
unmistakable. “That . . . you could never . . .”
“I could. I will. And really, what have you to lose in the final analysis?
Kill her, now, before—”
“Traitorous bastard!”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
449

The Trull’s eyes, normally locked into a perpetual squint, widened in shock as
Ulurac emerged from the tunnel. He had his walking staff in his hand and
murder in his eye.
“I
knew it!” His body was trembling with barely con-

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tained rage. “I knew that you would do something like this.
Traitor! Murderer!
”
Eutok rallied, stepping around the Bottom Feeders.
“Who are you to talk, brother! You have the blood of your mate and your child
on your hands! Would you try to add your brother’s blood to it as well—!”
“Yes! I would!”
Karsen saw that something within Ulurac just . . . just snapped. Any
semblance of civilized thinking evaporated, and what came charging at Eutok in
that moment was indis-
tinguishable from the most brutish of animals that had ever trod the planet.
Eutok charged, swinging his ax, and Ulurac didn’t slow in the slightest. The
ax struck straight into Ulurac’s chest, wedged in, doubtless caught between
two bones in his rib cage, and he didn’t even notice it. He twisted away, the
ac-
tion ripping the ax out of Eutok’s hand, and Eutok blanched and backed up.
“The jumpcar!”
Zerena was shouting. “Get to the jump-
car
!” And the Bottom Feeders were moving as fast as they could. All save Jepp,
who stood there, paralyzed, watching the unleashed mayhem between the two
Trulls. Karsen bent at the waist and, without slowing, grabbed up Jepp and
slung her over his shoulder, sprinting toward the jumpcar with huge steps.
“Leave the Orb, leave the Orb!”
Jepp cried out as they piled into the jumpcar.
And Karsen, not even recognizing his own voice as he spoke, shouted in her
face, “We’ll leave you before we leave it!”
Instantly he regretted the words, but it was too late as
Jepp recoiled from him, looking stunned, and she turned away and hid her face
in her arms.
There was a thick, burbling sound, and Karsen turned
450
PETER DAVID

just in time to see Gant—having carefully placed the Trin-
ity Orb in the front seat of the jumpcar—vaulting out of Eu-
rella’s mouth, like vomit, and enveloping the Orb with his protoplasmic body.
“Go!” burbled Gant as Eurella col-
lapsed to the ground.
“We’re gone!” Zerena shouted back.
Karsen held his breath, expecting the jumpcar’s engine to betray them for no
reason except to make their lives miser-
able. But he was pleasantly surprised as the jumpcar roared to life on the
first try. Zerena slammed it into gear and the jumpcar sped away from the
scene at top speed.
Karsen twisted around, looking out the rear of the jump-
car to see what was happening behind them. Eutok had been knocked onto his
back, and looked stunned, as a raging
Ulurac ripped the ax out of his own chest, sending a vast spurt of blood
flying from the wound. Karsen fully ex-
pected that he would try to use it to cleave his brother’s head open. He could
not have been more mistaken. Instead
Ulurac tossed it aside and, in a fit of blind, uncontrolled rage—rage that,
Karsen was sure, had been bottled up for who knew how long—fell upon his
brother, even tossing aside his own walking stick as his hands balled into
fists. He twisted him around, throwing Eutok flat upon the ground, clambering
upon his back.
“See, Eutok! I remembered! So you can’t slip a knife into me!”
He started slamming Eu-

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tok’s face into the ground, and no more words were spoken by either as Eutok
struggled in his grasp. The sounds of bat-
tle coming from the throats of the two Trulls were guttural, incoherent . .
. undiluted primal fury.
Then the jumpcar whipped around the corner of the road, and the last sight in
the deepening dark that Karsen carried with him was a pair of brothers, locked
in a battle to the death, while their mother lay flat on her back, staring up
sightlessly at the starless sky.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
451

SUBTERROR
Clarinda Redeye could not recall a time when she was not in agony.
It seemed to her that she had always been stripped naked and tied to a rock,
her arms and legs bound so tightly that she could no longer feel them. It
seemed that there had al-
ways been great, racking pain upon her back, and that flames—or at least agony
that felt like flames—were roar-
ing up from multiple wounds.
Sunara Redeye, her mother, was standing a short distance away from her. In
front of her was a large easel, and she was delicately applying colors to it
with a paint brush. She was studying it with intense concentration, looking
from
Clarinda to the easel and back again as she dabbed at it with precision.
She sighed. “It needs a little more... s o m e t h i ng. The face is lacking,
I think. Yerk, if you’d be so kind... ”
“ M i s t r e s s... p l ease,” Clarinda tried to say, but she barely got
past the first “M” of “Mistress” before she let out a shriek as a lash whipped
across her back. Tears poured down her cheeks and she tried to struggle
against her bonds, but failed utterly.
“Yes! Perfect! Just hold that, dear,” Sunara instructed, setting busily to
work once more.
Sobs racked Clarinda’s chest.
“Mother, please! Please, I’m begging you,”
she cried as the Piri named Yerk stepped back, lowering his whip and examining
his handiwork in the form of the new welt across her back.
“Ah ah ah,” Sunara corrected her, not even looking at her but instead focusing
on the painting. “Mistress. Not Mother.
If, after all, I were thinking of myself as your mother . . . I
couldn’t be engaging in this sort of action, could I. But as your Mistress,
well . . .” And she glanced up and smiled.

There was a hint of regret in her eyes, but she quickly cov-
ered it. “I have to deal with you in the appropriate manner, don’t I. I have
to make you understand... ”
“I’m sorry!”
wailed Clarinda. “I’m sorry Merrih was k i l l e d ! I t o l d y o u I w
a s s o r r y . T h e r e ’ s o n l y... ” S h e p aused, a wave of pain
washing over her, and she waited until it passed and forced herself to
continue, “There’s only so many ways I can apologize!”
“Merrih wasn’t killed, Clarinda,” Sunara corrected her calmly. “That makes it
sound like happenstance. The truth is, you killed her.”
“I didn’t! I told you, it was an Ocular . . . he shot her . . .”
“You killed her,” Sunara continued, making minuscule adjustments in her
rendering, “because you tried to help her escape. You know it. I know it. Yerk
knows it. And you in-
sulted me—”
“I didn’t—!”

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“You did, because you thought you could come back here and lie to me and
tell me that you and Merrih were simply hunting for prey when we both know
that was not the case.
In any event, you know you’re not allowed to go to the sur-
face hunting without an escort, so you were in violation of my rules either
way.” Her voice was calm, even slightly mu-
sical as it went up and down along the sentences. “These are things I’m aware
of, as your Mistress. And you, who will one day become Mistress, must be made
to understand... ”
“I understand! I understand!”
Sunara, intrigued, put her brush down. “What do you un-
derstand?”
“What ever you want me to!” Clarinda gasped.
“Ah. See, as I thought. I continue to fail.”
“ N o... ”
Coming from around the easel, Sunara studied her daughter thoughtfully.
Clarinda tried to pull away as Sunara reached out toward her, but the ropes
had no give, and she had no energy. The backs of Sunara’s fingers caressed her
blood- smeared cheek. “My failure,” she continued, “is that
I have spent so much of my life trying to give you a proper
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453

appreciation for plea sure... t h a t I h a v e done nothing to prepare
you for pain. And that was a grave oversight, be-
cause without pain, you cannot appreciate plea sure. You’re only half a
being. Pain, my sweet, is vital. Plea sure shows us the outermost reaches of
what we can experience... b u t pain shows us the limits. And if we don’t
know the limits, how can we appreciate exceeding them? True?”
“Yes, it’s true, what ever you say is true.”
“See, now... I k n o w t h a t e v e r y t h i n g I say is true, my
love,” Sunara told her, sounding sympathetic. “But I don’t think that you
truly know that, or even believe it. And that’s what I’m trying to address, to
make you understand. Plea s-
ure breeds lies, and pain breeds truth. We believe the lies to heighten the
plea sure, but we must know the truth even though it brings us pain. That
goes for both of us.”
Sunara then thoughtfully looked up at the fastening where the ropes that
were holding Clarinda’s arms were tied. She reached up and, very carefully,
undid the ropes so that Clarinda’s left arm was loosened from its bonds.
The ropes around her right arm, her waist, and her feet all continued to keep
her immobile. Nevertheless she began to cry tears of joy, even though her arm
. . . having lost all sensation... s i m p l y d r opped to her side like a
sack of bone and meat.
“Thank you, Mistress,” Clarinda said with a gulp.
“Oh, don’t thank me,” said Sunara. She took Clarinda’s numb left hand between
her own two hands, and then she said, quietly and lovingly, “I want you to
answer me hon-
estly, my dear. It’s most important. Have you been consort-
ing with a lover outside of our race?”
“No, Mistress, I swear I—”
Sunara’s head speared forward, her teeth wrapped around
Clarinda’s left little finger, and she bit down. Her teeth sliced through the
knuckle with ease and Clarinda screamed as she had never screamed before.
Sunara spit out Clarinda’s finger, and it plopped onto the floor with an ugly
sound that was drowned out by Clarinda’s continued howling. Sunara’s tongue
darted out and daintily removed the remains of
454
PETER DAVID

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Clarinda’s blood from her own lips. “Yerk,” she said calmly, nodding toward
the finger, “pick that up, would you?” Then she held up Clarinda’s hand close
to her face so she could clearly see the blood seeping from her maimed hand.
“It pained me to do that,” Sunara said in a low whisper.
“But you pained me in lying to me. Pain is like plea sure in that it can and
must be shared. Now . . . I will ask you the same question. If you give me the
same answer, more pain will fol-
low. And I assure you, it will hurt me more than it does you.”
She paused, thought about it. “But I can live with the conse-
quences if you can. Now . . . Clarinda... d i d y o u — ”
“Yes!”
howled Clarinda.
“Ah. And wh—”
“Eutok! Eutok of the Trulls! We met and he was my lover and I did it because I
hate you, Mother!”
she screamed, all control gone, all caring gone.
“I hate you! I hate our race! I
hate this life! I hate living in fear of mating and being muti-
lated and turning into a sick, twisted, perverted monster like you and why not
just kill me now and get it over with!”
She gasped, her rage momentarily spent, and then came the fear as she looked
deep into her mother’s eyes and saw terrible, terrible things within. And she
was positive at that moment that her mother was going to rip her throat out,
just sink her fangs into her and send her vital fluids spilling all over the
rock and down her body and everywhere, and that would just be the end of it.
And then the anger slowly faded from Sunara’s eyes, like a storm dissipating
over the sea. “So that is how you see me?”
“Yessss,” hissed Clarinda.
Sunara nodded once, then walked over to the canvas and picked it up from the
easel, studying it. “This,” she said, “is how I see you.”
She turned the painting around and Clarinda stared at it, uncomprehending.
It was not an image of her tied to the rock, as she had as-
sumed. Instead Clarinda was standing near a shore, water lapping around her
ankles. She was smiling, but there was a hint of sadness in her mouth, her
eyes. And her hand was
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
455

resting upon her naked belly, which was swollen in the un-
mistakable manner of a female with a child within.
“Is the way I see you so horrible to look upon?” she asked.
“No,” whispered Clarinda. “But . . . but I’m not with c h i l d... ”
“Yes, you are.”
“Mother . . .” and Clarinda tried not to weep, but she was unable to do so.
She had no tears left, though, and her chest heaved with dry sobs. “I swear to
you, I swear to what ever gods there are, I’m not lying, I . . .”
“I believe you’re not lying,” said Sunara, and she set the painting down and
went to her daughter, cupping her chin in her hand. “But you are also wrong.
You are with child. Your scent is already changing. I can perceive it, even if
you can-
n o t . Y o u c a r r y a c h i l d... ”
“ N o... ”
“And it is a half- breed. Is that what you intended...? ”
“ N o... no, I swear . . .”
“ C l a r i n d a... what you have done,” she said gravely, “it is a crime
against our people. It is a crime against our tradi-
tions. Do you understand the gravity of the penalty that awaits you?” Her

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voice dropped to a harsh whisper. “Do you understand the pain that will be the
consequence?”
She walked away from Clarinda for a moment, then re-
turned with a knife and handed it to Yerk. She nodded, giv-
ing a silent signal. Clarinda moaned, her body sagging against the rock,
bracing herself, closing her eyes, knowing that she was going to be screaming
until her throat was r a w... p r o v i ded she had a throat left to her.
Her right arm suddenly went limp. She opened her eyes in confusion, and
suddenly the tightness was gone from the bonds around her waist. She looked
down to see that Yerk, having sliced through the other ropes, was now cutting
loose the restraints around her feet.
Clarinda staggered and almost fell, the world spinning around her. Freed of
the rock, ironically she now again
456
PETER DAVID

sagged against it. She stared uncomprehendingly at her mother. Yerk, without
so much as a backward glance, walked away.
“For your crime,” Sunara intoned, “you can never be
Mistress of the Piri. Never take your rightful place as my heir. Never reach
the level of greatness that I know in my heart you would have been able to
achieve. Never . . .” Her voice caught, and her hands fluttered toward the
empty place where her breasts had once been. “Never make the noble sacrifices
that were made by your mother, and her mother before her, and so on down the
line. You have dis-
graced your line... a n d w ill have to live with that disgrace for the rest
of your existence. That is the decision... o f t h e unfeeling monster that
gave you birth.”
The words hung there in the stillness of the chamber.
And then Clarinda whispered, “Thank you . . . Mother . . .”
Her gaze level, Sunara replied, “Don’t thank me. You s e e... according to
law... t h e l i f e o f a p r e gnant Piri is sacrosanct. But once your
child is born, it will be taken from you, because it is a half- breed. And
once the proof of your crime is evident in the child... w e l l... i t w
ill be up to the Piri to decide what to do with you. I doubt we will be
exceedingly merciful.”
“I’ll . . . I’ll leave. Run away.”
“You can do that. In which event, I can assure you, you will be hunted until
the end of your days. You see? I told you it would hurt me more than you.” And
with that, she walked out of the chamber, leaving Clarinda gazing at the
painting of herself with her hand resting upon her swollen belly.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
457

THE CITY- STATE OF VENETS
i.
A light rain was falling that day as Orin Arn Oran stood out upon the Pier,
ringing the alarm bell that was to send the
Markene on their mission against the Travelers.
He had informed them that the closing of the gate would be the preliminary
signal telling them the time was at hand.
That was standard operating procedure, because if their supply of Klaa was not
cut off, they would remain in too much of a haze to be effective. They needed
to be deprived of it for just long enough that they could gain a fighting edge
and accomplish what was needed. In this instance, of course, standard
procedures had gone out the window. He’d never expected that the gate would
have to be slammed shut prematurely in order to prevent them from discovering
the ruination of their beloved Klaa.

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But he was determined to make the best of it. Clanging the bell would signal
the Klaa- deprived Markene that it was time to fulfill their mission. Some
. . . ideally, most . . .
would remember what that mission was without having to be reminded. Some
others would show up at the Pier, looking confused, and he would have to
reiterate for them what was expected of them. It was an incon ve nience to
be sure, but that was the price of dealing with their addled “cousins.”
Sure enough, the Markene began to mass. He saw them moving through the water
toward him. Orin registered mild surprise, because there were far more of
them coming his way than he would have expected. Had none of them re-
tained their instructions? Was it possible that the Klaa was beginning to
permanently damage their brains? He resolved that, after he had sent them on
their way, he would go and speak to the keeper of the coral and ask him
whether the

Markene might genuinely be getting more and more stupid.
Indeed, a talk with the keeper was overdue, since he’d in-
structed the keeper to make sure he remained apprised of the cleanup efforts’
progress. The keeper had failed to do so, which was puzzling, since he was
usually very reliable.
More and more of them arrived, coming from all direc-
tions and moving right up to the edge of the Pier. Orin Arn
Oran began to get a strange feeling, and he couldn’t quite understand why.
There was something different in the move-
ment of the Markene. It was less aimless somehow, and their f a c e s... t h
e y seemed more focused. Well . . . that was prob-
ably a good thing, was it not? They’d been deprived of the
Klaa for enough of a time that they could properly concen-
trate on what he was about to say.
He felt a twinge of regret for what he was going to do.
But he held firm to the things that Tulisia had told him. The bottom line was,
not only had he sworn loyalty to her, but he knew that she was truly a female
of vision. She was deter-
mined to fulfill that vision, and who was he to say that she was wrong? After
all, were not visionaries often misunder-
stood by their own people? He was determined not to be too shortsighted to see
things through.
He ceased ringing the bell, and the clanging tapered off.
“My friends,” he said slowly, “it is time. The attack on the
Travelers is at hand. You must go to—”
The Pier abruptly shook.
Orin Arn Oran staggered, not understanding, and he looked around in
bewilderment, simply assuming that there was some sort of subaquatic quake, or
perhaps a design flaw, that was causing the Pier to shift unexpectedly be-
neath his feet. He regained his footing, and was about to re-
sume speaking when the Pier shook yet again, even more violently.
He looked down.
Several Markene were slamming themselves full tilt against the support
struts of the Pier. They were doing so on both sides, alternating at first,
but then doing it in tandem once they managed to get their timing down
properly.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
459

“What are you doing?!”
shouted Orin Arn Oran. He stumbled backward, fell, tried to stand. The Pier
was rock-
ing violently under the unceasing crashing of the Markene.

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He heard the metal groaning beneath the repeated impact.
“Have you lost your minds? Stop this at once! Stop
—”
The metal pier in front of him suddenly gave way. It flopped downward into the
water, almost sending Orin Arn
Oran spilling feet- first into the sea. At the last instant, Orin
Arn Oran threw himself backward, getting traction on a more solid section of
the Pier. But that started to rock and creak as well, and more Markene were
coming in from ei-
ther side, assaulting a structure that had simply not been de-
signed to withstand attack.
And they were screaming. Not in pain, but in defiance, and it was that word,
that same damned word, Gorkon!
Gorkon!
“Stop! I order you to
—
!”
And then he saw the look on the Markenes’ faces, really saw it for the first
time, and Warlord Orin Arn Oran turned and ran as fast as he could.
He sprinted down the Pier, hearing the howling of the frus-
trated Markene behind him. In the distance was Venets, and it had never seemed
so far away to him. But he was on a solid section of the Pier, one that the
Markene had not gotten to, and already his mind was racing as to how he was
going to handle this anomaly of an uprising.
And suddenly the Pier directly in front of him exploded.
At least, that’s what it seemed like to him. An entire sec-
tion was ripped away, just like that, as if it was nothing. He skidded to a
halt, and Markene were leaping out of the wa-
ter at him, springing up with powerful leaps. He side-
stepped, tried to get out of their way, and yanked his sword from his sheath
as he did so. It was long and curved and had a vicious hook at the end, and it
did him no good whatso-
ever as three Markene, acting in perfect concert, barreled up and out of the
water. He swung at them, missing them clean, and the force of his swing sent
him off balance and tumbling off the Pier into the water.
460
PETER DAVID

He sank beneath the waves. He was in no danger of drowning, of course, for he
could breathe under water as easily as any other of his race. He was still
gripping his sword, and he brought it up to bear, ready to take on any as-
sailant.
Suddenly a webbed hand grabbed him from below, yank-
ing him down. He swung his weapon trying to snare the hand with the hook, and
then he was pinned from behind.
Arms that could have crushed his torso with no difficulty wrapped themselves
around him, and a voice snarled into his ear, “Drop it or die.”
Understanding spoken language under the water was not the easiest thing for
the Merk, but this was certainly clear enough for Orin Arn Oran to comprehend,
and he obedi-
ently released his weapon. He watched helplessly as it spi-
raled to the depths, and then he was yanked upward abruptly by the Markene who
was holding him with bone- crushing force.
They broke the surface of the water, and the rain was falling harder now.
Thunder rumbled across the sky as if to punctuate the gravity of the moment,
and Orin Arn Oran was yanked rudely around to face the Markene who had as-
saulted him.
“ T h i s... t h i s i s... ” O r i n A r n O r a n b e g a n t o s p
u t t e r .

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The Markene drew him close, and any number of times
Orin Arn Oran had seen the black fury that nature was capa-
ble of inflicting by way of the sea, but he had never seen any-
thing as darkly frightening as what he saw in that young
Markene’s expression.
“Tell them,” he grated. “Tell them their time is done. Tell them that I,
Gorkon, and the rest of the Markene are coming for them. Tell them to clear
out of Venets or they will surely die. Tell them. And make it fast.”
Then he shoved Orin Arn Oran, spun around, and kicked him with the full force
of his flippers. Orin Arn Oran sailed up out of the water, through the air,
and landed on the Pier beyond the area that had been ripped apart.
“Gorkon,” he murmured in shock, lying on his back, DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
461

trying to pull himself together as the fury of the rain in-
creased.
And then he heard a threatening, terrifying bellow that spoke of long tides of
anger and resentment, all brought to the fore here and now. And the bellow
was Gorkon shout-
ing, “Tell them, I said!”
Orin Arn Oran staggered to his feet and ran as fast as he could along the
Pier, slipping several times, but always get-
ting back up and continuing. And as he did so, two things rattled through his
mind. The first was that Tulisia was never going to believe it. And the second
was that he had the deep, sick feeling that he knew exactly why the keeper had
stopped keeping him apprised of what was happening.
ii.
{He plunges deep, deep toward the depths where even his most devoted of
followers will not come after him.}
{That is acceptable to him. He knows there is only so much he can expect of
them. One league at a time, that is the way to go about things. Besides, he
knows that what he must do now, the others cannot help him with.}
{The darkness envelops him as it did before. He re-
members, almost with a dim, amused nostalgia, how he had been so afraid the
previous time. Much has happened since then. He has come to the slow
realization that every-
t h i n g h e f e a r e d... h e had no reason to. That he has it within
him to accomplish great things. That he is not alone. Not a l o n e... }
{ N o t a l o n e... i n h i s head.}
{He senses it before he fully realizes what it is that he’s feeling. It’s
back. That same strange, uncanny sensation of long, invisible tentacles
encircling his mind. The last time it had happened, he had pulled back in
fear. This time, he does not. This time he opens his mind, his soul to it. He
welcomes it.}
{It is old, unspeakably old.}
462
PETER DAVID

{It speaks to him without words.}
{Gorkon cannot reply without words. He does not have ability. But he will, in
time. For now, he forms words in his head.}
{
I need you. We need you. My people must be free.
}
{He has no idea what to expect for an answer. He is cer-
tain that his people can accomplish what is required on their own, but nothing
that has happened to him in the past tides since he encountered Ruark Sydonis
has occurred without a reason. He has to believe that his encounter with his

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behe-
moth of the deep falls into that same category. And what better reason than as
an ally in his battle?}
{Or perhaps he has miscalculated. Perhaps he gone com-
pletely off in the wrong direction, and wherever the beast is, down in the
deep, it will attack him, it will be offended at his presumption, it . . . }
{He perceives the shift in water before he actually sees the black mass of the
creature approaching him. It is in his mind, sure enough, but now the beast
itself is rising from be-
low. Closer and closer it draws, and he still cannot see its en-
tirety, still can barely comprehend its size, and now he prepares himself for
facing the distinct possibility that, in his misbegotten strategy, he has just
doomed his enterprise . . . }
{And an eye the size of a small island, inset into a face too vast for him to
take in, rises up to study him, and the voice sounds in his head, speaking in
the vastness of eons long, long gone. And it says... }
{
I t h o u g h t y o u w o u l d n e v e r a s k...
}
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
463

THE COUNTRY OF FEEND
i.
“Thrust! Again! As if your lives depend upon it! Thrust!
Thrust!”
Nagel of the Ocular stood with arms folded a short dis-
tance away as, in the castle courtyard, the Children’s
Crusade—as they had come to be known—stood in per-
fectly arrayed lines and jabbed their spears forward, again and again and
again, under the guidance of the captain of the guards. Several dozen Ocular
had already reported for duty, and he knew of a certainty that there were
more.
These were the ones whose parents had cooperated. For those whose parents
sought to undermine the king’s de-
crees, well . . . there would be serious consequences.
Phemus was standing at his side. “You disapprove,”
Nagel said.
“You already know what I think.”
“That I’ve gone mad with grief.”
“Yes, my king.”
He turned to look at Phemus, his eye narrowing. “What would you have me do,
Phemus? Nothing? And do not for an instant bring up the Mandraques again... ”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, my king, although maybe... ”
He didn’t immediately finish the thought, and Nagel sighed, knowing he
shouldn’t bother to ask, but unable to help himself. “Maybe what, honored
Phemus?”
“Maybe there is one other option you haven’t considered.”
“Really,” said Nagel. “I somehow doubt that. I mean, what possible means of
response are left? We approach the
Piri with an offer of truce? Search for volunteers, for the old or sick or
dying, to present themselves as meals? What o t h e r...? ”

Then Nagel’s voice trailed off as he saw the grim expres-
s i o n i n P h e m u s ’ s e y e . “ Y o u... w e r e r e a l l y a
b o u t t o s u ggest that.”
“You see, my king, I knew that you would reject the no-
tion out of hand—”

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“Of course I reject it out of hand!”
bellowed Nagel at such volume that the children froze in their place, gaping
at him, their spears in an outthrust position. Even the captain of the guards
looked surprised.
Annoyed, Nagel grabbed Phemus by the arm and pulled him into the closest room
he could find, which turned out to be the armory. Phemus glanced around at the
array of weaponry, looking somewhat uncomfortable. Stabbing a finger at his
advisor, Nagel snarled, “And you accuse me of madness? Of not thinking
clearly?”
“I accuse you of nothing, my king. But this might be the most reasonable way—”
“I am not interested in being reasonable, Phemus!” said
Nagel, advancing on him until he could back up no farther.
“I’m interested in obliterating them once and for all!”
And Phemus, his back literally against the wall, snapped back, “Have you
considered the possibility that you cannot!
Have you even considered the possibility that they have as much right to live
as we? That they are not animals! That it is you, in your actions and
obsessions, who is acting far more like a mindless animal than... ”
Nagel grabbed for a spear and whipped it around, pointing it at Phemus’s
chest. “I could kill you right now and be within my rights as king,” he said
very softly, very dangerously.
There came an insistent knocking at the door. “Not now!”
Nagel called as Phemus stood unmoving, not even breath-
ing. “I’m in a conference!”
“But my king,” came the voice of a steward, “there are people here who are
insisting upon seeing you.”
“Tell them I’m seeing no one.”
“A wise decision, my king,” the steward said from the other side of the door.
“That was my instinct on the subject.
They were just a pack of Bottom Feeders . . .”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
465

Instantly Nagel dropped the spear, Phemus forgotten. He lunged for the door,
grabbed it, and threw it open. The stew-
ard, who had just started to walk away, stopped where he was in surprise.
“Do they have anything with them?” he demanded.
The steward looked blankly at him. “‘Anything,’ my king? What sort of
anything...? ”
“Never mind. Bring them to the reception room immedi-
ately. I’ll meet them there.”
Clearly confused by the abrupt turnaround, but not inter-
ested in getting into anything approaching an argument with the king, the
steward bowed and went off to do as
Nagel had ordered. Nagel, meantime, turned back to Phe-
mus, who was still catching his breath at the nearness of his brush with
death. “If they brought it, Phemus... i f t h e y a c -
complished their mission... b u t t h e y m u s t h a v e ! T h e y
wouldn’t dare return here if they hadn’t! They must have brought the Orb of
the Trinity! It’s miraculous! Come!
Come and see it!”
“I . . .” Phemus straightened his clothing in an obvious attempt to restore
some mea sure of dignity. “I . . . think it would be best if you spoke with
them yourself, my king. I
h a v e... o t h e r m a t t e r s t o a t t e n d t o . ”
“As you wish,” said Nagel, not really paying any atten-
tion.
He exited the armory and sprinted across the courtyard.
On the way, the captain of the guards intercepted him, say-

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ing, “My king, a moment of your—”
“Yes, yes, what is it?”
“I was considering taking the Crusaders on a training mission into the woods.
We will exhibit caution, of course, but honing stealthy approach on some of
the surrounding f a u n a... ”
“By all means, Captain, splendid idea, go to it,” and he patted the captain
briskly on the shoulder and hurried on his way. Then he paused, turned, and
called, “Captain!” The captain returned to him, eyebrow raised, and in a soft
voice, Nagel said, “Do you, by any chance, have a trainee among
466
PETER DAVID

your group who is... h o w shall I put it . . . already stealthy?”
“Young Turkin is quite an adept stalker, Highness, if that’s what you mean.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. I was thinking he might b e a b l e t o p
r o v i d e a s m a l l s e r v i c e f o r m e... ”
“Anything you ask, my lord.”
“Good,” smiled Nagel, and the smile had a hint of danger to it. “Very, very
good.”
ii.
The world seemed fuzzy to Jepp.
Having been escorted to the king’s meeting room by a steward and several
extremely suspicious guards, Jepp real-
ized she was swaying slightly only when Karsen nudged her shoulder and
whispered, “Pull yourself together.” His caution garnered annoyed looks from
the others of Zerena’s clan.
She jammed the base of her palms into her eyes, rubbing them furiously to get
them open again...
...
light . . . blinding light, and heat, and bodies with the meat being seared
from their bones, and then the bones themselves collapsing into piles of dust
. . .
Jepp gasped and then staggered, sagging against a star-
tled Karsen. “What’s wrong?” he said in a hushed voice.
“ I... w a s s t a r t i n g t o f a l l a s l e e p... j u s t f r o m
h a v i n g m y eyes closed.”
“I’m not surprised. You kept saying you couldn’t sleep all the way back
here.”
“Not . . . not ‘couldn’t.’ Didn’t want to... ” T hen she fell silent.
All during the long trip back, she had ceased voicing her concerns about the
Orb of the Trinity. Her plaints had done nothing to deter the resolve of the
others, and only served to anger Zerena. Besides, the only one of the Bottom
Feeders who’d made much of a point of talking to her at any time
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
467

was Karsen, and the two of them were barely speaking. She knew deep down
that he regretted the way he had spoken to her back during their escape from
the Trulls. Nevertheless, it had hurt her deeply, and he didn’t seem to quite
know how to deal with that, and honestly, neither did she. So the gap of
reticence widened between them, with only a few words passing between them
every now and then.
Karsen shifted in place, then took a breath and began, “ J e p p... ”
But before he could continue, the doors burst open with an explosive thud, and
Nagel strode in looking nearly child-
like in his eagerness. “Do you have it?” he asked without preamble, and then
added almost as an afterthought, “If you don’t, I’ll likely just kill you
right here on the spot.”

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“I believe,” Mingo said, “this is what you’re seeking, oh mighty blinking
one.” He stepped forward, holding up the
Orb of the Trinity.
Nagel gasped in amazement. “That’s... i t ’ s e xactly how it was pictured.
I am . . . amazed. In slightly less than the time allotted, you have
accomplished... ” H e p u t o u t h i s hands and said “Give it to me.”
And the words burst out from Jepp. “You don’t want it, sir,” she said.
Zerena moaned loudly, and the rest of the Bottom Feed-
ers reacted with similar impatience... a l l s a v e R a f e K e s t o r ,
who looked a bit surprised and said, “He doesn’t?”
“I don’t?” echoed Nagel.
“No, you... y o u don’t.” She took a step forward and, in her exhaustion,
her legs almost buckled. She caught herself a t t h e l a s t m o m e n t .
“ T h i s... t h i s d e v i c e... i t w ill not do what you think it
does.”
“Will it wipe out the Piri?”
“Quite probably.”
“Then it will serve.”
“No, but . . . you don’t understand,” she insisted, and came closer.
Instantly one of the guards came between them, looking threatening.
But Nagel made a “tsk” sound and told his guard, 468
PETER DAVID

“Calmly. I hardly think the tiny human poses a threat to me. Looking at her
right now, I don’t think she’d pose a threat to another tiny human.” He eased
the guard aside and approached Jepp, studying her. “It seems to me, hu-
man, that you can barely stand. Are you ill?”
“I have not slept.”
“I can sympathize, more than you can believe. Then the solution for your
predicament seems obvious.”
“No, it’s just—”
“She’s a Mort, O King,” Zerena said brusquely. “Not worth the time it takes to
speak to her. Mingo, give him the
Orb and let’s be on our—”
“I haven’t slept because of the dreams, sir!” Jepp said, forcing herself to
speak through the haze that was threaten-
ing to descend upon her. “What I’ve been seeing now...
comes to me while I am awake. Day dreams. Visions of . . .
of that!” and she pointed at the Orb. “Visions of fire and death and... a n d
m o r e death! Agonizing death for all! I see i t a n d... a n d i t b r
i ngs back memories of things I didn’t even know I knew to forget!”
“I don’t understand... ”
“None of us does,” said Mingo.
“She doesn’t know what she wants!” Zerena told the Oc-
ular, striding forward but stopping a respectful distance from Nagel. “She was
hugely enthusiastic about this busi-
ness! And suddenly she wants nothing to do with it! She’s making no sense!”
“Indeed, human,” Nagel said, not unkindly, “Zerena
F o u x m a k e s a v a l i d p o i n t . I m e a n... t h i ngs you
didn’t even know you knew to forget? You’re not sounding especially rational.”
“That device is not rational,” she replied, pointing once more at the Orb. “It
. . . the power it contains, that it can un-
l e a s h... i t i s n o t t h e p r oduct of rational minds.”
“May I remind you, child, that it was human minds that created it.”
“Yes, Highness, I know,” she said. “And I . . . I don’t pre-
tend that I’m being overwhelmingly convincing in what I’m
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saying. But I can tell you that I made a mistake. We all did.
And I’m trying to fix the mistake before more people pay for it . . .”
“I assure you, child... I w ill not run blindly into the fray. I will study
the device carefully. I will make no mis-
takes. And when I use it . . .”
“No,” and it was all Jepp could do to choke back a sob as
Mingo handed the Orb to Nagel. “Please, no... ”
“All right,” and she knew he was saying it merely to mollify her, which didn’t
help, but he continued anyway, “ ...i f I use it . . . it will be with the
utmost deliberation and concern for the safety of all. I hope that will
suffice for you.”
“For me.”
“Yes. For you.”
Perhaps it was Jepp’s utter fatigue, but she felt as if she were seeing the
world through a thin veil of red at that mo-
ment. “It has nothing to do with me, you... y o u g r e a t b l i n d fool!
Nothing to do with me, and everything to do with you!
You will die! Die! All die!” and she made as if to lunge to-
ward Nagel. Instantly Karsen was there, holding her back, and she was pulling
at him as she continued to scream in mounting fury, “All of you! Die at the
hands of the humans you despised, because human hands created that and it will
be your undoing! In fact . . . I should be glad! Glad you’re going to die! You
can all die!
You can all burn, Nagel! Burn!
Burn as punishment, courtesy of the last, great death trap of the human race!
Die! Die!”
Mingo stepped in behind Jepp and clapped his huge hand across her mouth. Her
voice was muffled and she struggled furiously in Mingo’s unbreakable grasp.
And out of the blue, Karsen said—to the clear astonish-
ment of everyone there—“Perhaps Jepp is right. Perhaps . . .
sire, maybe it would be best if we—”
“You know,” Rafe Kestor spoke up, “I likewise was think-
ing perhaps—”
“ P e r h a p s... what?” Nagel said, and there was an elec-
470
PETER DAVID

tric air of danger in the room, a silent dare to the Bottom
Feeders to challenge Nagel and his roomful of Ocular.
Zerena said abruptly, “This has been so much fun, we have to do this more
often.” With a quick inclination of her head she indicated to Mingo to move
backward, keeping
Jepp under control. Jepp let out a smothered howl of protest.
“We’ll let you know next time we’re in the area.”
“Good speed to you, then,” said Nagel, but he never took his eye off the
struggling Jepp.
“And to you as well. Come, friends, let us away,” Zerena said, and the Bottom
Feeders—under the watchful eyes of escorts—hurriedly exited the reception
room.
THE CITY- STATE OF VENETS
The rain had not let up. Indeed, the sky had grown even darker and was now a
solid slate of black and gray clouds.
As Tulisia Sydonis stood upon her balcony staring out on her beloved view of
Venets, she fancied the clouds were taking the shape of fearsome, legendary
monsters of the deep, roaring overhead in a manner symbolic of what the people
of Venets were about to face.
Ruark stood within, looking mildly concerned. “Are you sure, my dear, that we
should not perhaps do as the Markene warned? Evacuate the city?”

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Slowly Tulisia turned to face him, and she had never felt more contempt for
her husband than she did right then. “As pathetic as I know you to be,
Ruark... I cannot believe you are seriously suggesting we abandon Venets.”
“I am not,” Ruark pointed out. “I was simply asking whether you were
considering it.”
“Come look at this,” she said with an imperious gesture.
“Is it safe?” he asked timidly.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
471

“Of course it’s safe! Come here!”
Ruark walked hesitantly out onto the balcony. The rain was coming down fast
and hard, but it was still possible to make out what Tulisia was pointing at.
Merk soldiers were lined up all through the watery streets of Venets. They
were bobbing up and down in boats or standing upon floating platforms or
were crouched on walkways. They were heavily armed with spears and har-
poons, both ready to be thrown by hand and also with large harpoon guns aimed
at where the ocean fed toward the c i t y... t h e m o s t l i k e l y p o
i n t o f e n t r y f o r a M a r k ene attack.
“We also have underwater nets strung all over, spring-
loaded, ready to snap up entire herds of Markene,” she said proudly. “And an
underwater first strike force, standing ready on the seabed, prepared to send
up signal balloons if and when they see the Markene approaching.”
“If?” asked Ruark. “You think there’s a possibility they will not attack?”
“A possibility?” she said with a sneer. “I consider it more a likelihood. They
tried a pathetic bluff in hopes of convinc-
ing us to abandon Venets to them. Nearly scared the life out of Orin Arn
Oran.” She shook her head and stared into the distance, able to make out Orin
Arn Oran standing atop one of the bridges that spanned the canals, looking
out, waiting.
“I have to say, as Warlord, he is a disappointment to me.
When this is over and the Markene have been subdued, I am going to be giving
serious thought to making some changes in key offices around here.”
“You are?”
There was something in his voice that prompted Tulisia to look at her husband.
“Do you have a problem, Ruark?”
“It’s just, my dear, that I would have thought any changes to be made would
have come through me, not you.”
He was speaking to her in a way that almost sounded—
could it be?—challenging. An aberration, surely, brought on by the stress of
the moment. “Of course, my dear,” she said without giving it any more thought.
“Obviously I misspoke.”
“Oh good.”
472
PETER DAVID

Clearly he was mollified by that, and Tulisia couldn’t help but think that
the position of Warlord wasn’t the only one that needed to be reconsidered.
Ruark’s usefulness...
or rather, his lack of usefulness... a s l o r d o f V enets was coming to
an end. The question wasn’t whether he was go-
ing to be disposed of, but how and who was going to be trusted to do it.
Hell, perhaps she would attend to it herself during the at-
tack. She was certain she was stronger than Ruark. Why, it would be a small
matter to break his neck, cave in his skull with some sort of blunt object,
and then claim that he fell during all the excitement and fatally injured
himself. Who would question it? For that matter, who would really care?
Tulisia knew that she was the true power of the Sirene.

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There were none who could stand against her. If her plan to challenge the
Travelers had not proceeded as she had hoped, well, there was always next
time. And perhaps with more capable individuals than Orin Arn Oran in charge,
and without having to worry about that fool Ruark stumbling into something and
ruining it, then by the gods, she could make certain that things were done
right. She would...
That was when she saw the waves churning in the dis-
tance.
They were about a mile off shore. Not only could she spot it from her
vantage point, but the soldiers on the ground and in the water were ready as
well. Granted, the Markene were the bulwark of Venets’s army, but the Merk
warriors were not exactly inept. The Markene were unarmed, having never been
provided weapons. They hadn’t been needed.
Any surface- bound foe who was trespassing upon Sirene seas wouldn’t be
able to withstand a traditional Markene at-
tack, so there had never been any purpose in arming the
Markene. In this case, since the Merk could survive under water as easily as
the Markene, the battlefield was level.
The Markene were, pound for pound, Sirene to Sirene, far stronger, but the
weaponry at the Merk disposal evened the odds and—in Tulisia’s
opinion—even tipped them toward the Merk.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
473

Still, she wasn’t entirely certain what was causing the waves. Her best guess
was that the Markene were operating in concert, coming in one vast formation
of bodies that was displacing some water. She shook her head, despairing of
the poor creatures ever having a clue as to proper attack procedure. By
causing the water to stir the way they were, they were giving advance
warning of their approach. The sea- bottom guard wasn’t even going to have to
alert the—
“No, there they come,” she said.
“The Markene?”
“No, Ruark, the warning balloons,” said Tulisia impa-
tiently, and she was right. The balloons of the submerged soldiers had been
released and were popping up to the sur-
face, an assortment of gray round spheres that informed everyone on or near
the surface that . . .
Tulisia blinked in confusion. “What the hell ...? ”
“Problem, dear?”
It was a sign of her concern that she actually responded to his question,
rather than ignoring him while exuding dis-
dain. “The sea- bottom guards... t h e ones issuing the first w a r n i n
g... ”
“What about them?”
“They’re surfacing. They’re scrambling up to the docks... ”
More than that. They were doing so in what even Tulisia could see was nearly
blind panic. They were gesticulating wildly to the soldiers who were
waiting, and several of them were sprinting straight toward Orin Arn Oran.
Voices were beginning to rise. There were frightened outcries, sol-
diers looking at one another in steadily building fear that fed upon itself
and spiraled more and more out of control as word spread of . . .
Of what? What in the world had they seen? What were they telling each other
of that was so... ?
She couldn’t believe it. The craven fools were beginning to back away.
Soldiers who had been posted in boats or on platforms were vaulting off
them, seeking to get to the nar-
row solid roadways and docks that lined the canals. Others
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PETER DAVID

were throwing down their weapons and flat- out running.
Word was spreading like a plague, and Tulisia was hearing screams and outcries
and sheer, stark terror was rampant.
And the wave was building. Growing higher, faster, and there was the distant
roaring of building water that seemed far beyond anything the Markene could
possibly generate.
“What’s happening?!” she demanded, and she shouted down to Orin Arn Oran,
“What’s happening?!”
But her voice couldn’t carry over the outcries of her people. Orin Arn Oran
was no longer on the bridge. She couldn’t believe it. She stood there, frozen
on the balcony, gripping the railing so tightly that she bent the metal. “He
abandoned his post,” she whispered. “The Warlord aban-
doned his post.”
“That can’t be good,” Ruark observed mildly.
Higher came the water, and higher still, and the wave was building upon
itself, growing to an impossible height, rolling in with impossible force.
From on high the rain poured down, soaking Tulisia to the skin, her seaweed
hair flattened on her head, her clothing plastered to her body, and she
continued to scream, “What’s happening! Someone tell me!”
The canals and the roadways were now crammed with people, fleeing. Only a
handful of soldiers had remained where they were, and as the wave, black
with menace, bar-
reled toward them, a mile high it seemed and growing still, they broke and ran
as well. Tulisia had a brief glimpse of
Orin Arn Oran in the masses. He was running, Atlanna and their children at his
side. She screamed Atlanna’s name.
Somehow, amazingly, Atlanna heard her, glanced over her shoulder, spotted
Tulisia, and made an obscene gesture at her before being swallowed up by the
fleeing masses.
The door behind them burst open and one of Tulisia’s handmaidens was standing
there, looking stunned and pan-
icked. She remained in the doorway, eyes wide.
“What’s going on!” Tulisia demanded. “Tell me! Now!”
“ Y o u... y o u need to know—”
“Yes! I need to know what?!”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
475

The handmaiden’s face hardened. “That I have always hated you, you sea bitch.”
With that, she turned on her heel and fled.
Tulisia let out an outraged scream and started after the in-
solent handmaiden, but Ruark stopped her. The grip on her arm surprised her
with its strength. “What’s the matter, Tulisia?” he said challengingly.
“Afraid of a little water?”
She looked at the oncoming wave, was almost over-
whelmed by the earsplitting din of the howling crowd combined with the roaring
of the impending deluge. “You know! You know what’s going on!” She grabbed at
his clothes. “Tell me! I order you to—”
His hand swung so fast that she never saw it coming. It took her across the
face and knocked her backward. She stumbled and fell, laid out on the floor,
staring up in shock at someone she barely recognized.
Unbridled hatred burned in his eyes, and he seemed to grow in stature, looming
over her. “Did you truly think I
would let you do it?” he demanded. “Did you seriously be-
lieve I would let you bring destruction down upon Venets with your demented
plans to challenge the Travelers and the

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Overseer? To dominate and rule the Damned World? You maniac! You would have
destroyed us all!”
“So you’re doing it instead?!” demanded Tulisia, trying to get to her feet.
“Yes,” he snarled, and his foot lashed out and struck her in the face. It
knocked her back down as he advanced upon her. “Because that is a lord’s
privilege. Because I have looked upon my people, and I have looked upon you,
and I
have found you all wanting. This is the only way to right it.”
He reached down and grabbed a fistful of her seaweed hair. She screamed,
batting at him, but he didn’t even seem to feel it as he hauled her toward the
balcony, yanked her to her feet. He shoved her forward against the rail,
pressing his body up against her in a manner that—under other
circumstances—would have seemed seductive. Now it was only forceful and
brutal.
“Let me go! Let me go!”
she shrieked.
476
PETER DAVID

“How’s your knowledge of history, Tulisia?”
“What are you talking about!?”
“Almost all the Mort legends speak of a lord looking down from on high,
finding his people unworthy, and washing their sins away with a flood. I am
your lord. I can do no less.”
She struggled in his grasp, but his astounding, unsus-
pected strength kept her immobilized...
And then she saw something within the wave. Not hun-
dreds of individual Markene, as she would have suspected.
No, there was one thing there, something vast and solid.
Something that had remained unseen by anything upon the surface since it had
landed in the First Wave.
“It can’t be,” she said, her voice broken in a whimper.
“It is.”
“It’s dead. Long dead.”
“It’s very much alive. And it likes the Markene. And it doesn’t like you. You
know its name. Say it.”
“ N o... n o , ” T u l i s i a S y donis sobbed, trying with re-
newed, hysterical vigor to pull free of her husband’s grasp.
“Say it!”
he howled above the oncoming tidal fury.
“Say it! Say it!”
“Liwyathan!”
Tulisia cried out, invoking a name that was used to scare Merk children when
they refused to go to bed willingly.
And Ruark cackled insanely. “There! That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
“Liwyathan sleeps! It always sleeps!”
Ruark shook her violently, and shouted, “You woke him, Tulisia! You and your
schemes! Your infernal schemes, born of your insufferable pride. But the
Liwyathan is the king of the children of pride, and the king shall have his
due!”
The Liwyathan reared up, and it was gargantuan beyond
Tulisia’s ability to grasp. Not since that long- gone day when it had first
encountered the mighty beasts that had once roamed the Damned World had the
Liwyathan emerged fully from the water. It did not do so at this moment
either, but what she was able to see of it was all slashing teeth and thick,
black hide, water cascading down it, and eyes, many eyes, DARKNESS OF THE
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and tentacles, by the gods, it had tentacles whipping about that looked miles
long.
“I didn’t wake that!”
screamed Tulisia.
“The Markene did, Tulisia! One brave, despairing
Markene, his mind screaming to it even though he didn’t re-
alize it at first! But I knew! Now he knows! Now everyone will know!”
And suddenly Tulisia was in the air, thrashing wildly, Ru-
ark holding her over his head with seemingly no effort.
The massive wave roared toward them, and the Liwy-
athan loomed everywhere she could see.
“Bow down, Tulisia! Bow before your king!”
Ruark Sydo-
nis shouted, and he threw Tulisia off the balcony, howling in demented
laughter, seemingly driven mad by the sight of a force of nature unleashed.
Tulisia twisted about in the air, began to fall, and then the swollen
whitecaps hit, roaring into
Venets. With a scream that was drowned out by the crashing of the waves,
Tulisia vanished into the crush of the water.
Ruark smiled, spread wide his arms, and the gigantic wave, majestic in its
undiluted power, slammed into the build-
ings, blasting them apart like dead trees before the fury of a hurricane.
THE COUNTRY OF FEEND
i.
As soon as the jumpcar was a safe distance from the city of the Ocular, Zerena
Foux halted the vehicle, turned to Jepp, and said, “I want you out. I want you
gone. Now.”
Jepp was seated all the way in the back, curled up in a ball, looking ashen.
Karsen had watched in despair as, in the short time since they’d departed the
castle, Jepp’s phys-
ical appearance had substantially deteriorated. Her eyes ap-
478
PETER DAVID

peared half sunk into her head, her lips cracked and dry.
She was trembling as if an illness was coming upon her.
“Mother, please. Can’t you see she’s not well ...? ”
“I don’t care about her excuses anymore, Karsen,” she snapped at him. “Don’t
you realize what’s been happening?
Don’t you get it yet? I should have realized it from the start.
We all should have.”
Even Mingo looked puzzled. “What are you talking about, Zerena?”
“The human girl is trying to gain revenge against us for the death of her
Mandraque master.”
“What?” Karsen gaped at Zerena. “But . . . we had noth-
ing to do with it . . .”
“No, but we came through looking to benefit from the death of him and his ilk,
and she resents us for it, and wants to punish us,” Zerena insisted. “So she’s
sown discord into the clan from the moment she got here. Saying what ever
was necessary to put us at risk. Filling your head... a l l o u r heads...
w i t h i d i o t i c n o t i ons of heroism, and we were fool enough to
listen to her, and it was only to put our necks on the line! And when that
didn’t work, she recanted right in front of Nagel, doubtless hoping we’d fall
for it again so that Nagel would kill us!”
Jepp was shaking her head fervently. “No... y o u don’t u n d e r s t a n
d... I... I ’ v e seen it. I know. It’s going to de-
stroy the Ocular . . . the Piri . . . us... ”
“The Orb is their problem!” Zerena said. “And why are you still in my jumpcar?

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Get out!”
“It’s our problem. You don’t . . . I’ve seen it. Memo-
r i e s... fl ooding over me... n o t e v e n m i n e... ”
“You see? The girl’s crazed,” insisted Zerena.
“Karsen,” Mingo said cautiously, “I have to admit, your mother has a point.
The girl’s become more and more un-
stable.”
“Dump her,” Gant burbled from the front.
“But . . . what if she...? ”
“Don’t,” Zerena said sharply. “Don’t even suggest we should listen to her
again. She’ll say anything... ”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
479

“We won’t be clear of it,” Jepp rasped. “When they use i t... w e w o n ’ t
b e f a r e n o u g h a w a y . Y o u ’ v e n o i d e a... o f i t s r
e a c h... w e ’ l l d i e... e i t h e r q u i c k l y... o r w o r
s e...
s l o w l y... t h e g l o w... t h e g l o w... ”
Zerena started to clamber around to where Jepp was hud-
dled. And to her clear astonishment, Karsen blocked her path, raising a hoof
and placing it firmly against her stom-
ach. She gaped at it, and him. “I should break that off at the ankle,” she
snarled.
“You could,” said Karsen. “But it wouldn’t change any-
thing. Mother, she’s ill,” he continued quickly, before she could interrupt.
“You’ve been ill from time to time. You weren’t always yourself. You didn’t
see any of us suggesting we abandon you to let the sickness ravage your mind
and body. All I’m saying is, allow the same for her.”
“Zerena, really, what harm would it do to allow her to stay a little longer?”
Mingo asked. “It’s not as if she eats a l o t... ”
“You were just advocating that we should get rid of her!”
Mingo shrugged. “What can I say? I blow with the pre-
vailing winds.”
Zerena made a sound of unfettered disgust, then shook her head. “Keep her
silent,” she warned Karsen. “Responsi-
bility for her is on your head. And if I think for a moment that what ever’s
ailing her is contagious, I strap her to the roof. Understood?”
“All she needs is sleep, Mother,” said Karsen, climbing over Mingo to get to
Jepp. “Once she sleeps, it’ll allow her body to heal.”
Disdaining to reply, Zerena moved back behind the con-
trols and, moments later, the jumpcar was rolling once more.
“Look at that,” Mingo noted, tapping the dash. “The hot-
star seems to be at full power. You notice that? It was unre-
liable at best, but the longer Jepp has been with us, the more dependable it’s
become. Perhaps she’s a good- luck charm?”
“That, Minkopolis,” said Zerena, “is the single most ridiculous thing you’ve
ever said.”
480
PETER DAVID

In the back, cradling Jepp in his lap, Karsen whispered to her, “I’m sorry.
About . . . you know... when we were es-
caping the Trulls. When I yelled at you. It’s just . . . you’re my first
human, and I truly don’t always know what to make o f y o u , e v e n t h o
u g h w e ’ r e... t h o u g h y o u say we’re ‘bonded.’
But what I know now is that you have to sleep. You must.”
“Can’t,” she said, and she was trying to shake her head, but she didn’t even

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have the strength for that. “The day d r e a m s m i g h t... m i g h t f
o l l o w m e i n t o s l e e p... I don’t w a n t t o d r e a m o f
fi r e a n d t h e l i g h t a n y m o r e... ”
“Then dream of something else,” he told her gently.
“Dream of something better.”
“ T r y... I ’ l l t r y... b u t... h a v e t o s t a y a w a k
e...
mustn’t . . .”
Her eyes glazed over and for a heartbeat, Karsen thought she was dead. Then he
heard a soft snoring, and her chest rose and fell slowly. He passed his hand
over her eyelids, closing them, and Jepp’s mind sank deep into a dreamless s l
e e p... w h i c h d i d n o t r e m a i n d r e a m l ess for long...
ii.
Phemus, upon being told that that Nagel had brought the
Orb of the Trinity to his study, made his way there with his thoughts racing.
There were things he was going to have to do, and he wasn’t looking forward
to it. But there was simply no choice. The Orb presented too great a risk to
the Piri, and severe mea sures had to be taken.
No guards were standing outside the study, which was con ve nient for
Phemus. It was going to make what he had to do that much easier. Silently he
applauded Nagel’s gener-
ous cooperation in his own demise.
He took a deep breath, preparing himself for the next few minutes, which
were going to prove crucial for the survival of the Piri. He opened the door,
which moved silently on its oiled hinges, and his heart leapt with joy.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
481

Nagel was sound asleep at his customary reading table, his head literally
buried in a book. There was a large mug of some sort of beverage near him,
only partly consumed. And to his right, situated on the table, was the Trinity
Orb.
It could not have been more perfect.
Slowly, stealthily, Phemus tiptoed across the room, watching for the slightest
sign of stirring from the king.
Nothing. He was so unconscious that Phemus suspected he could have walked in
slamming rocks together and it wouldn’t have roused him.
He reached into his robes and pulled forth a small vial.
With a deft movement, he unstoppered it and then upended the contents—a tiny
amount of clear powder—into the drink at Nagel’s side. They settled in and
promptly dis-
solved, as Phemus knew they would. Now all that was nec-
essary was to come in far more loudly, “accidentally”
awaken Nagel, and engage him in conversation until Nagel drank. Once that
happened...
“You’d be free to make off with the Orb.”
Phemus jumped several feet in the air, coming down hard and clutching at his
chest in shock. The words had literally been plucked out of his mind and given
voice, and the voice belonged to Nagel.
Nagel was sitting up and gazing at Phemus with cold in-
tensity.
“I . . . beg your pardon, my king,” Phemus stammered, trying to pull himself
together and effect a casual air. “I . . .
thought you were sleeping . . . I mean, awake... I... ”
“I know what you thought.”
Nagel said nothing. He simply stared at him, and Phe-
mus, moved to fill the air with words, clapped his hands to-
gether briskly as if they were cold and said, “Well . . . I’ll let you get
back to your work. I can tell this is not the best time to—”

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“You were going to wait until I was dead,” Nagel said, slowly rising from
his chair. “Then you were going to re-
move the Orb, knowing that I wouldn’t wake up and sound the alarm. By the
time my body was discovered, you would
482
PETER DAVID

have safely delivered the Orb to the Piri and then returned here to share in
the shock of my demise.”
“My king!” Phemus affected astonishment. “I . . . I can-
n o t b e l i e v e... ”
“ T h e s t u f f y o u p u t i n t h e d r i n k... ” a n d Nagel
raised the mug, looking into its contents, “was it the same thing you used to
poison my father? Make his death look like a tragic happenstance?”
Phemus gulped deeply. “My king . . . I do not know what . . . what dementia
has seized you. Perhaps those Bot-
tom Feeders did something to you, made you think—”
Nagel came toward him, holding the mug up, smiling a fierce nonsmile. “At my
request, the captain of the guards had one of the members of the Children’s
Crusade follow you. A most deft little spy was he. He watched you just now go
down, meet with one of the Piri, engage in what appeared a most interesting
conversation. Did she ask you to bring the
Orb to them, or did you simply volunteer? What’s your con-
nection to them? Are they paying you? Are you seeking power? Or is there
something else?”
Phemus tried to speak, but no words came. He had been certain that his hurried
meeting with Sunara, in which he had informed her of the arrival of this
potent weapon, and she had told him to bring it to her, had been unobserved.
How was it possible?
“Of course,” Nagel said, “this could all just be some gar-
gantuan misunderstanding. Fortunately, there’s a simple way to determine that.
Here,” and he extended the mug to Phe-
mus. “Drink this. Drink it, and all will be forgiven.”
Phemus stared long and hard at the drink, the surface of which appeared so
placid and inviting. Slowly, trying to stop his hand from trembling, he took
the proffered mug.
“Might I suggest,” said Nagel, “that you drink to the health of my late
father.”
“An excellent suggestion, my king. To your late father.
What’s the old Mort toast? Oh... y e s... ” H e r a i sed the mug. “Here’s
mud in your eye.” And in one quick move-
ment, he threw the drink in Nagel’s face.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
483

As much as he should have been prepared for it, Nagel was not. The drink
splashed into his eye, and Nagel let out a pained cry as it burned him
fiercely.
With strength born of desperation, Phemus leaped for-
ward, tackling Nagel, and Phemus let out a furious shriek that was something
torn from the throat of not an Ocular but a Piri. His lips drew back and his
fangs, normally tucked up and back in his mouth, dropped down. It was the
first time in his life that he had used his fangs, and he did so with as-
surance as he sank them into Nagel’s throat.
Nagel, still in agony from the drink, was almost unaware of the assault on his
neck. It took him only an instant to re-
alize, though, and with a roar he started yanking at Phemus.
Phemus clutched onto him, batlike, drinking deeply, and

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Nagel threw a fierce punch that smashed Phemus in the side of the head,
jolting him loose.
Phemus crashed to the floor, but quickly recovered, and slithered past the
staggering Nagel. The king of the Ocular clutched at his throat, feeling his
lifeblood fountaining from the gaping wound that Phemus had torn in it.
Phemus, meantime, sprang to his feet a mere arm’s length away from the Trinity
Orb, drawing an arm across his mouth to get the thick blood off his lips.
Just as Phemus threw his arms around the Orb, the doors were smashed open and
two guardsmen were visible in it, demanding to know what was happening. His
mind racing, Phemus cried out, “A Piri attack! They came in through the
window, attacked the king, and got away! They’re still on the grounds! I’m
taking the Orb to safekeeping! Find them!”
The guardsmen nodded as Phemus started to move quickly past them.
Too slow. Nagel tried to speak, but his voice burbled within his throat, which
was filling up with his own blood.
Giving up, he settled for lunging at Phemus, slamming into him. The confused
guardsmen watched as Nagel and Phe-
mus struggled, each clutching the Orb, jockeying for lever-
age and position.
484
PETER DAVID

“They’ve infected the king! Pull him loose!” shouted
Phemus.
Nagel kicked out, knocking the guardsmen back, and shoved the Orb hard right
at Phemus, causing him to stag-
ger off balance. Then he tried to yank it out of Phemus’s arms, but the
smaller Ocular held on. They pushed and pulled against each other, their hands
all over the smooth surface of the Orb...
And they froze.
The small, red plastic piece had suddenly lit up, and there was a high-
pitched whine accompanying it. The whine was coming from the Orb.
They had no idea what was causing it. They’d never heard any sound like it.
Nagel was still blinking furiously, trying to overcome the burning of the
poisonous drink, but
Phemus could see clearly some sort of glowing runes ap-
pearing in the plastic.
They said “300” and then “299” and “298” and they kept changing with
increasing rapidity, the internal circuitry long subject to deterioration, and
as a result the timing de-
vice was speeding up exponentially as it counted down.
None of which any of the Ocular in the room knew. All they knew was that the
high- pitched sound was annoying, and that each desperately wanted to see the
other dead.
Nagel briefly got the upper hand, swung the Trinity Orb around, and smashed
Phemus in the chin, staggering him.
Phemus lurched back, and then the guardsmen—determined to get the Orb clear
until everything was sorted out—
endeavored to pull it away from Phemus.
And as they all struggled, the glowing numbers contin-
ued to speed toward “000” and detonation.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
485

iii.
She sees it, so clearly.
It is as she has always known it would be. She sees the
Orb. She sees it appear to collapse inward, and in a mil-

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lionth of a second, the explosion comes, and it is loud be-
yond loud, terrifying beyond terrifying, of such power and magnitude as she
has never known, as no one currently liv-
ing upon the Damned World has ever known.
The surprised faces of the Ocular crumble like dead leaves, and the explosion
ripples out, further and further, enveloping everything, and Zerena pi loting
the jumpcar sees it coming toward them, and Karsen starts to tell her to drive
faster but it’s no good, the power sweeps them up and the last thing Jepp sees
is Karsen’s blood boiling alive before her own eyes boil and bubble over, and
nothing can stop it, n o t h i n g c a n...
“It mustn’t happen! Let it be them, but not us! Not us!”
she screams, and she screams it in her sleep, and she screams it aloud, and
Zerena completely lost control of the jumpcar.
She cursed Jepp’s name as the car skidded and slammed i n t o a t r e e...
iv.
. . . and in the millionth of a second, as the circuitry trig-
gered the explosion, and as the plutonium began to collapse in upon itself . .
.
. . . something went wrong.
The detonation circuitry misfired. Instead, electricity ripped through the
Orb, and there were small explosions from within, but not the implosion
required to allow the fis-
sionable material to fully detonate.
Smoke poured from the Orb, and it superheated, and
Nagel and the guards yanked their hands away. “What the hell?!?” one of the
guardsmen demanded.
486
PETER DAVID

The Orb clattered to the floor and there was more crack-
ling, more smoke, and fire suddenly ripped upward from within. Fire and heat,
and something else, some sort of liq-
uid that was silvery white, except the moment it touched the air, it turned
yellow...
. . . and the air seemed alive with burning, invisible fire, and Nagel
staggered, grabbing at the air as if he could bat it away somehow.
There was still a high- pitched whining coming from the
Orb, and Nagel suddenly felt ill, as if he wanted to vomit.
He turned to his guardsmen, clutching at his throat, and was horrified to see
that their skin was rotting away, their bones already peering through. They
collapsed and there was Phe-
mus, falling atop them, the blood vessels in his eye popping even as his body
started to collapse in upon itself.
Nagel didn’t understand what was happening, didn’t un-
derstand why suddenly the floor had reached up for him and pulled him down.
He stared at the Orb of the Trinity, the device that was go-
ing to solve all the world’s ills in one great stroke, and then, to his
complete and utter shock, he saw Merrih standing a short distance away, and
she was smiling at him, and he had forgotten just how beautiful his dead niece
was. He wanted to reach out to her but he couldn’t move, and the yellowish
stuff was leaking everywhere, and he knew he should be in agony, but for some
reason he wasn’t.
I can still see, thought the One- Eyed King, and suddenly all his movements
were unrestricted and free, and he knew as he reached for Merrih that
everything was going to be fine, and then he knew nothing more.
v.
A silence hung over the jumpcar for a time, and then Zerena called out
, “Is everyone all right?”
There were affirmative murmurs from everyone in the jumpcar.

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DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
487

“Everybody out. We’ve got to inspect the damage.”
Obediently, everyone got out of the jumpcar, with Karsen the last one, helping
a dazed Jepp out.
The second they were clear of the car, Zerena turned and hit Karsen in the
face as hard as she could.
Karsen fell like a sack of rocks. Instantly Zerena turned to face Jepp and she
had her sword out. “Now you die,” she said.
Jepp’s face twisted in fury, and Zerena belatedly realized—by injuring
Karsen—that she had unleashed the berserker rage that dwelt within Jepp’s
heart.
And it was at that moment that Mingo shouted, “Zerena!
Jepp! Look!”
Zerena risked a quick glance to see where he was indicat-
ing.
Her jaw dropped.
In the far, far distance, the city of the Ocular was glowing green against the
night sky.
Instantly Zerena remembered all that Jepp had said. All of it. The description
of what would happen to the Ocu-
lar . . . of what would happen to them . . . the flash of light, the glowing,
the overwhelming wave of heat that would de-
stroy them all . . .
There was a choked sob from Jepp, and Zerena looked back at her. So
overwhelmed was Jepp by her nightmare made real that her deadly rage subsided.
She was just stand-
ing there, staring. She was vulnerable to attack by Zerena . . .
but instead Zerena, her arm numb, dropped her sword.
“ A r e... w e a l l g o i n g t o d i e n o w?” Zerena Foux asked.
It took Jepp a few seconds to pro cess the information that
Zerena was talking to her, looking to her for answers. She shook her head,
dazed, and murmured, “I . . . I don’t know.
I don’t . . . think so. I don’t understand... c a n... b a r e l y remember
what happened... I... ”
Suddenly there was a rumbling beneath their feet, the ground shaking, and a
panicked Zerena Foux—who was not afraid of dying beneath the swing of a
sword or a blow from an ax, but was terrified of meeting her death through
some
488
PETER DAVID

bizarre, unknown means that was comprehensible only to the tortured mind of a
Mort—cried out, “It’s coming! The wave of fire and light is coming, it’s—!”
“No!” Mingo shouted. “It’s not that! Don’t you recognize it?”
And then she did, but too late, and even if she’d recog-
nized it instantly, there would have been nothing to be done for it.
It was Travelers, a half- dozen of them, pounding across the terrain upon
their draquons. The draquons let out defiant roars, and this time there was no
uncertainty of their target.
This time the Travelers were heading straight toward the
Bottom Feeders, barely slowing down.
Zerena’s clan scattered in all directions, desperately trying to get out of
the way, and to Zerena’s shock, the Travelers did not go through. Instead the
draquons, at the command of their masters, whipped around the Bottom Feeders,
herding them like cattle. Even in the face of a hopeless fight, Zerena wasn’t
about to back down, even from the Travelers. She grabbed up her fallen sword,

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looked for a target, as the Trav-
elers hurtled around the Bottom Feeders, and suddenly one of them charged
straight toward Zerena. She swung her sword and the Traveler effortlessly
reached out and slapped it aside. Before Zerena could move, the draquon’s tail
lashed out and knocked her flat. She felt something break within her chest,
probably a rib, possibly two, and she went down, clutching at it.
The others in her clan were being driven back as well, and then she saw one
of the Travelers reach out, snag Jepp around the waist, and urge his black and
terrible steed forward.
Obediently the draquon bounded away, and seconds later, the other Travelers
were following him. Zerena, her arm around her chest, lay on the ground and
watched in stunned silence as the Travelers departed, leaving the rest of her
clan untouched.
Moments later, all was silent.
“Well, that was con ve nient,” said Zerena Foux.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
489

THE CITY- STATE OF VENETS
{Gorkon watches with vague interest, and only the slightest sense of irony, as
a large sailing ship pi loted by the Travel-
ers cruises past.}
{He swims alongside them for a brief while, keeping a safe distance. He
watches the deck with curiosity, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of these
supposedly most dreaded of beings.}
{He sees nothing. The sails are billowing, aiding the strong wind that is
propelling the ship along. But there are no crewmen on the deck running it
that he can... }
{Then he sees someone. Someone has emerged onto the deck. He is cloaked and
hooded, and it is impossible to see his face. Not only that, but he does not
appear actually to be standing upon the deck. It is as if he is floating
across it.}
{There is someone else there as well. This person is also wearing a cloak,
but it is smaller, and seems more designed for protection than anything
else. The hood is back, reveal-
ing the head and face, and he is not certain, but it appears to be a female of
some sort. She is unlike any female he has ever seen, however. Her face is
smooth and tanned, her hair billowing out behind her, and it does not look
like seaweed at all. It is hard for him to be certain, but she appears both a
f r a i d... a n d y e t confident. He does not understand how she can
possibly be both, but she is.}
{“She is a human,” says a voice from next to him.}
{He glances over to see Ruark Sydonis floating next to him. Floating is about
all Ruark Sydonis can do these days, with his arms and legs having been
shattered.
Gorkon has fashioned a flotation device for him, and Ru-
ark seems convinced that his limbs will eventually heal.

Gorkon is dubious, but he defers to Ruark’s wisdom on these matters.}
{“A human,” says Gorkon. “I have never seen one.”}
{“You haven’t missed much,” replies Ruark.}
{Gorkon considers the situation. “Do you think,” he says slowly, “that the
Travelers will notice that much of Venets is destroyed?”}
{“As they pass it? Perhaps.”}
{“Will they care?”}
{“I very much doubt it,” says Ruark. “Travelers only care about things that
you and I cannot begin to understand.”}
{“Such as humans? Why would they care about hu-

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mans?”}
{Ruark Sydonis considered it for a time, and then said helpfully, “I hear they
make excellent pets.”}
THE COUNTRY OF FEEND
i.
The Children’s Crusade of the Ocular huddled for mutual warmth and protection
deep within the woods. They were cold and tired, and they could not stop
staring at the distant green glow that emanated from the far- off city.
The children were looking to two of their own for guid-
ance, the two oldest. One was named Turkin, a young, strap-
ping Ocular lad. The other was a female, Berola. Berola had always been a
precocious sort, and had far preferred to run with the males than associate
with the females. Defying Oc-
ular custom, she had actually shaved her head, which had infuriated her
parents and made her quite the talk of the town.
Now she and Turkin were sitting a short distance from
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
491

the others, and Berola was muttering, “This is ridiculous.
We should just head back to the city, that’s all.”
“While it’s glowing?” demanded Turkin. “Don’t be ridicu-
lous.”
“So it’s glowing. So what? A glow never hurt anybody.”
“The captain said we wait here for him to get back,”
Turkin said firmly. “And here is where we wait. Did you all get that?” he
raised his voice so the others could hear him.
“We wait here until the captain returns.” Then, once they nodded, he lowered
his voice so that only Berola could hear and said, “Between you and me... I
t h i n k t h i s i s a l l p a r t o f the training mission.”
“Eh?” Berola looked at him skeptically.
“Yup. They come up with all sorts of ways to try and keep us off balance. Why,
earlier the captain had me follow the high advisor himself, Phemus.”
“Really?” Berola now seemed impressed, which pleased
T u r k i n n o e n d . “ D i d y o u fi n d o u t a n y t h i n g i n
t e r e s t i n g...? ”
“He was talking to a Piri.”
“No! You lie!”
“Gods’ truth,” Turkin said fervently. “I told the captain, and that’s why he
went and left us here: to go back and tell the king himself.”
“But why? Why would he have been talking to the Piri?”
“No idea. Not my job to—”
“Look!” one of the youngsters suddenly called out. “It’s the captain!”
He was right. The captain of the guards was coming through the woods toward
them. Berola and Turkin, who had been sitting, were promptly on their feet,
shoulders squared, trying to look like capable members of the Cru-
sade.
And then the captain began to stagger.
“Captain?” Berola said. “Is something wro—?”
“Stay back,” said the captain, his voice thick and raspy.
He’d been standing in the shadows of the trees, and the moon was covered by a
cloud, but now it emerged from
492
PETER DAVID

hiding and the children gasped. Even from the distance they were at, they
could see his skin was blackened and peeling and falling off. His teeth were
gone, and his eye looked like it was cracking.

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“Don’t . . . go back,” he managed to say. “Nothing for y o u... e v e r y
one dying... a l l o f t h e m... a l l... d y i n g... ”
“Dying?” gasped Turkin. “Of what? Why? From what?”
“Humans,” the captain of the guard managed to get out, and then he collapsed.
Several of the children cried out as he fell, and they started to move toward
him.
“Don’t touch him!” shouted Berola, and the children froze.
They heard the captain wheeze horribly for long seconds, and then there was an
ugly rattle, and then nothing.
“Is he okay now?” asked one of the children, and another one hit the first
child upside the head and said, “No, he’s not okay, he’s dead, stupid!”
And then came wailing and sobbing and cries from all the children that they
wanted to go home, that they had had enough, that this was all too terrible.
“Shut up!” shouted
Berola, putting her hands to her head. “We . . . we just need to think!”
“Think about what?!” Turkin was clearly starting to panic. “You heard the
captain! We can’t go back! Every-
o n e... e v e r y one is going to be like him—!”
“I want my mother!” cried one of the children, and they started crying all
over again for their parents, and Berola and Turkin looked helplessly at one
another. Because, re-
ally, all they wanted to do, deep down, was break down and start sobbing as
well.
And that was when a voice shouted over all of them, “You don’t have mothers,
you don’t have fathers, and you’re not going back!”
They turned and stared, and Berola felt a surge of fear bubbling up in her
throat. Turkin tried to control a similar sensation. It was all he could do
not to bolt and run. Collec-
tive gasps were ripped from the throats of the remaining children.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
493

A female Piri was standing there. She was tall and ele-
gant, but had a haunted look. “All you have,” she said softly, “is me.”
“You
?” said Turkin, trying to sound confidently arrogant.
“ Y o u ’ r e... y o u ’ r e a — ”
“I know what I am,” she said. “But you don’t know what I
am. I’m your salvation.”
“You’re not serious,” said Berola.
The Piri nodded. “If you come with me, now, I will pro-
tect you from the others of my kind. I can do this for you.
And I will train you and help you... a n d , i n time, you will help me. We
will be able to protect each other.”
“Us protect you?” asked Berola. “Why should we?”
“Because,” said the Piri, “like it or not . . . you’re the last of the Ocular.
And you’re in trouble. And I’m in trou-
ble.”
Berola studied her, tried to get some sort of sense of her.
She noticed the Piri’s left hand. “What happened to your lit-
tle finger?” she demanded.
“Nothing. It’s fine. It’s just not on my hand.”
“What’s your name?” asked one of the younger Ocular.
“Don’t talk to her!” Berola ordered.
But the Piri ignored her. “My name is Clarinda. What’s yours?”
“Kerda.”
“ K e r d a... w ill you come with me?”
“Will you hurt me?” Kerda asked guardedly.
“No. Never. I swear.”

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“All right,” said Kerda.
Clarinda nodded, and started to walk off into the dark of the forest. Kerda
followed her, and the others started to as well.
“Are you insane!” shouted Turkin. “We were being trained to kill her kind!
You can’t . . . this is crazy! Berola, tell them they’re crazy!”
“You’re crazy!” Berola called.
But the youngsters didn’t stop, following Clarinda. And
494
PETER DAVID

as the last of them disappeared into the woods, Turkin and
Berola exchanged ner vous looks, shouted as one, “Wait for us!” and sprinted
off after them into the endless night of
Feend.
ii.
Karsen Foux strapped the last of his provisions to his back as Zerena stood
there, shaking her head. The other Bottom
Feeders stood nearby, silent, unwilling to interfere.
“You can’t be doing this, Karsen,” Zerena said. “We need to have a
discussion about this.”
“I’m here, Mother. Discuss away.”
“Dammit, Karsen. The Travelers wanted her. The Travel-
ers took her. Who are we to say no to the Travelers?”
“We’re no one,” Karsen said. “We’re Bottom Feeders.
We’re nothing.”
“Exactly,” Zerena told him. “The one time we tried to be something we’re
not, it was no end of problems, and even the stupid Mort who talked us into it
recanted on it.”
“I can’t contradict a single thing you’re saying, Mother.”
“Then what the hell are you doing now?!”
“You don’t get it, Mother!”
“Of course I don’t ‘get it’! Would I be shouting if I got it?
That girl has done something to you!”
He steadied himself and spoke with a ferocity that he once thought he would
never be capable of. “Yes. She has.
And what you don’t get is that she’s done something to all of us, but you just
refuse to see it.”
“She sure as hell has done something. She’s driven a wedge between us.”
“No! No, it’s... ” H e p u t h i s h a n d s o v e r h i s f ace,
search-
ing for the words. “Mother . . . how can you go back to be-
ing nothing when, for just a moment, you were something?”
“We never were, Karsen. We were nothings pretending to be something. The
way we are is the way to survive.”
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
495

He shook his head. “I can’t just survive, Mother.”
“Well, you’re in luck, because if you pursue this foolish-
ness, you won’t survive.”
“I can’t . . .”
“You can’t what?”
“I can’t . . . not know,” he said in frustration. “The Trinity
O r b... i t w a s j u s t p a r t o f one thing. But Jepp is part of
some-
thing bigger. Somehow, in some way, she . . . she makes things happen.
We’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it. I don’t pre-
tend to understand it. What I do understand is this: We’ve spent our lives

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sifting through the remains of great wars, picking through them and taking the
valuables for ourselves.
And we’re always patting ourselves on the back for our inge-
nuity and our ability to take advantage of others’ mistakes and see the rich
prospects in that which was left behind. Well, Jepp is the remains of a war,
and I’m not talking about the pointless Mandraque battle where I found her. I
mean the war of the Third Wave. She was ours. She was . . . she was en-
ergy. She was light. She’s all that we can be and more . . .”
“Oh, gods, all this rhapsodizing over a damned Mort
!”
He came close to Zerena, look her in the eyes, and said, “We had one of the
greatest riches in the Damned World r i g h t h e r e , r i g h t i n o
u r g r a s p... a n d she slipped through our fingers. I may be a Bottom
Feeder, but for a while, I
was at the top, and I’m not going back to the bottom again.
I want her for the way she makes me feel, and get that ex-
pression off your face, Mother, I mean for the way she makes me feel right
now. Here,” and he thumped his chest.
“With her gone, I know that sooner or later, I’m going to stop feeling like
this, and I won’t let that happen. It’s selfish and self- centered, but I
don’t care, because the Travelers don’t win this one. I’m going to win this
one. I’m going to get her back, and what ever she’s going to make the Damned
World into, I’m going to be part of it, so I might as well do something about
it.”
“You’re not a hero, Karsen!”
“I dream of a world where I am, Mother. And if Jepp does, too... t hen
anything is possible. If I stay on as I
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PETER DAVID

am . . . I know I’ll never accomplish anything. It’s better to try something
that might happen than stick with something that never will.”
Zerena’s expression hardened. “You arrogant, judgmen-
tal bastard. You always thought you were too good for me, didn’t you.”
“No, Mother,” he said honestly. “Not always. Only re-
cently.”
“Get out.”
“As always, Mother,” and he bowed slightly, “your obedi-
ent son. Mingo... R a f e K e s t o r... Gant . . . it’s been an honor.”
“Bring me back something,” said Mingo chipperly.
Karsen bowed once more, then turned, adjusted his pack, made sure that his
hammer was solidly upon his back, and started off.
The Bottom Feeders said nothing for a long time. They just watched Karsen
bound away, his powerful legs eating up distance quickly. Karsen continued to
move, faster and faster, until finally he was merely a speck.
With utter disgust lacing her voice, Zerena adopted a nasal tone and said
mockingly, “‘She’s light. She’s energy.
She’s the center of my damned universe, Mother.’ Of all the—”
“Do you... ” M i ngo hesitated, then said, “Do you think he might be right? I
mean, there were things that—”
“He’s thinking with his loins, Mingo. That’s all.”
“But what if—?”
“I don’t believe in what- if.”
“Perhaps,” Mingo suggested, “that’s the core of the prob-
lem, isn’t it.” She glared at him, but made no reply. He shrugged, then
glanced off in the direction Karsen had gone. “He’s heading northwest.”
“Yes. I know,” said Zerena.
“Which way do we go?” he asked.
Unhesitatingly, Zerena Foux said, “Southeast.”

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They piled into the jumpcar without another word. Zer-
ena switched on the engine.
DARKNESS OF THE LIGHT
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It sputtered and died, the hotstar going dark.
They stared at the gem, bereft of light and power, for a long moment.
“You know,” Mingo finally said, “this is ironic on so many l e v e l s... ”
“Shut up,” said Zerena Foux.
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PETER DAVID

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In a career spanning more than thirty years
Peter David has written dozens of novels, comics, and screenplays. He has
worked with both Marvel and DC comics, including the re-
cent
Dark Tower
, and has penned many bestselling Star
Trek novels. In addition, he has written for several tele vi -
sion series, including
Babylon 5
and
Crusade, and was the cocreator of the pop u lar Nickelodeon series
Space Cases
.
His most recent book
Tigerheart is a brilliant pastiche of
Peter Pan. He lives on Long Island with his family.

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